Remembering Our Digital Selves

An amazing book review by SusanG of Viktor Mayer-Schonberger's "Delete" is available on Daily Kos.

The question whether our current more or less unlimited digital storage is a blessing or a curse is a very interesting one, and the author and the reviewer are clearly at odds on this point.

This review is also extensively discussed in the Comments section that I recommend you peruse if you have the time/inclination.

I remember clearly how the first computer I owned (an AT&T 3B2 Unix Machine) came with 32 MB of hard disk. The operating system took five or so MB, any application, such as Uniplex, another 5-10 MB, leaving perhaps 15 MB for storage. And you'd be hard pressed using that up.

Today, that's one large, well-pixeled digital photograph, or fifteen minutes of music.

And on this laptop I'm using (sporting 32 GB Solid State Drive Hard Disk) I lose 100 or MB without even trying -- some operating system update, or new virus download -- or blinking. And I take it in stride. Unconceivable 25 years ago.

But is virtually unlimited digital storage good or bad? Do you want five thousand images of your college follies as permanent records of just that, youthful rational shortcomings? Some say yes, some say no.

Point is, this is a very interesting discussion, and one, which you might want to take a closer look at.

Food for digital thought.