Every point you make is completely valid. The debate over file formats, and efforts to preserve file formats algorithmically (ON PAPER LOLOLOL) is a crisis hist

Every point you make is completely valid. The debate over file formats, and efforts to preserve file formats algorithmically (ON PAPER LOLOLOL) is a crisis historians are raising red flags about all over the place. To give you an example, a good friend of mine did her PhD on two 16th century French philosophers' correspondence. It was a very comprehensive analysis of all of their exchanged letters, diaries, and journals. She's in a complete panic about the fact that today, all correspondence is done via email, which is protected with passwords; and once people die their passwords go with them unless they make arrangements. Maybe this is OK with a few big brains that the world knows about, but what about all the quiet geniuses that haven't been discovered? Historians will never have access to these lost works. Of course there are analogies to the analog world, but the point is: digital media is causing a type of dark age right under our noses.