The digital black hole: will it delete your memories?

Google's vice-president Vint Cerf has warned that all digitally stored information could be wiped out by tech upgrades, putting the sum total of human knowledge under threat. An author and scientist explains why today's systems are so vulnerable - and how pioneers are preparing for the worst

A huge amount of the information we consume and transmit in our everyday lives is perilously ephemeral. Every second, thousands of new photographs are uploaded to social media. Most of the images we take today are uploaded straight from a digital camera or a phone, with the picture never actually existing as a physical artefact.

So how will future historians and biographers piece together our lives and times without bundles of diaries, paper letters and professional correspondence? Family photos and emails are important to us personally, but what about more significant losses of our collective heritage? How do we preserve our interaction on Facebook, Twitter, comment threads and citizen journalism across the web? And does the "grey literature" of official reports, briefings and policy statements that are only published online also risk being lost to the future? In a speech last week, Google's vice-president Vint Cerf warned that a whole century of digital material could be lost.

Related: Google boss warns of 'forgotten century' with email and photos at risk