Beware of digital dark age, warns internet pioneer Vint Cerf

Vinton Gray Cerf, considered as one of the fathers of the advancement of the internet, fears that a time may come, where today's digital information may get lost and cannot be retrieved forever if we don't act now.

In a recently concluded 21st Virtual Forum hosted by Synergia Foundation, Vint Cerf warned that technology such as floppy disk, which was ubiquitous in the 80s and 90s and even in the early 2000s, has lost relevance and the data it contains cannot be read or recovered by many today. Most of the smart machines such as computers, notebooks, tablets don't have space to incorporate such hardware, let alone the disk drive to read the floppy disk's successor CD-ROM.

Cerf gave classic examples of hieroglyphics carvings on stone tablets, tombs, writings on Papyrus in Egypt and other lost civilisation. The treasure trove of such historical information may contain a solution to modern problems. Thankfully, there are few people who have studied for years can understand and continue to find important information of the past.

The ancient information on the stones and papers, if properly conserved, can last another century if not more. But, there is uncertainty with degradable electronics products like optical disk/ floppy disk, which may contain some important data. Many including yours truly have moved on to USB pen drives and no more have disk drive nor floppy disk reader.

Cerf also gave an example of how many people who thought saving a marriage video on VCR tape is better than the photo album; later only to realise the former got damaged and the precious recorded memory was lost forever.

I am pretty sure even the pen drive will become obsolete in a decade if not early considering the fact that most of the digital content is now being migrated to the cloud storage. The later offers easy access to all compatible devices at any time and at any place.

Vint Cerf. Credit: The Royal Society/Creative Commons

If we come to think of it, the advent of Netflix killed the movie rental VCR business around the world.

What if in the next century, despite advancement in technology, there is an urgent need for historical information of a deadly virus or maybe a secret data is declassified, but it was last stored in a floppy disk in the 1980s and there is no machine to read.

To avoid such as scenario Cerf, who has been the vice president and chief internet evangelist for Google since 2005, has offered some valuable suggestions on how to preserve the digital information for several centuries.

Cerf says there should no blockage in the transfer of information deemed important to be archived in secured places.

Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics, and Information Technology, who also a participant in the virtual summit asked Cerf on how the nation-states can contribute to preserving the digital information for long.

Cerf replied that there should be inter-governmental pacts between countries for sharing and replication of critical information.

All scientific data that is very important for the survival of the human species must be given priority, there should be duplication of copies so that in an eventuality of a natural disaster in one nation, doesn't completely destroy any important data and lost forever.

If not government, a company with the right business model such as 'Data Insurance' and with copyrights of the original owner intact, can be asked to maintain long-term preservation and offer access whenever needed.

Already, The Computer History Museum in California has already started accumulating a lot of legacy software and hardware and making it available to people, Cerf said.

He also appreciated Google for scanning and cataloging a lot of books and its Cultural Institute personnel are visiting several museums around the world to take high-resolution images of paintings and artifacts for preservation.

So, the process of saving the digital and other relevant information has started, but there is a long way to go.

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