Ted Rall, the man who lives to hate, is now worried that we as humans, are destined to be forgotten, blaming digital media.

His argument is that paper at least can be read, even if it degrades, while CDs, DVDs, and hard disks, eventually fail completely.

But even paper is useless, unless someone takes the time to record history. Thus, history is not preserved on its media, but preserved by those who seek to preserve it.

Let's not be stupid. We know that digital information can be copied from one hard drive to another, or from a tape to a DVD, or a DVD to the next technological breakthrough in recordable media. The USENET postings, which are considered by many to be first application of the Internet, dating as far back as May 11, 1981, has been transferred from one media to another many times over, and has since been replicated many times over as well.

Weblogs, the latest craze in web publishing, is causing more history to be recorded than ever before. Each person who writes a weblog is effectively recording history, and recording opinions, as they happen each day. And those blog postings are being replicated across multiple blog aggregators.

Yes digital media itself eventually degrades. But those who seek to preserve it will ensure it remains preserved. Just like those seek to preserve paper, does so as well.

So in the end, if any history is lost, its not because of the media, but because of choice.