> Today, losing material is rather inexcusable, given the cheapness and ease of digital storage. It's not that easy; you can't just put a hard drive or SSD in

> Today, losing material is rather inexcusable, given the cheapness and ease of digital storage. It's not that easy; you can't just put a hard drive or SSD in a safe and expect it will work after 20 or 50 years. If anything it's harder and more expensive today, because you can do that with a reel of tape (it does degrade, but much slower). The main thing that's changed it that people realized there things are actually useful to keep around. Much of the stuff that was erased or thrown out was done just because people didn't think anyone would care.