@Snarp “The potential exists, but it presupposes a complete collapse of civilization, something there’s really no reason to expect.”
I was ready to agree with this but then, I thought, if I gave @Snarp a tin foil cylinder with music on it, how long would it take him (her? other?) to be able to find out what was on it? It’s not like you can pick up a cylinder player from Best Buy. That’s a relatively simple thing, though, and it’s not even 200 years old.
But what about something more complicated? Like a JAZ drive? In another hundred years it may be impossible to find a working JAZ drive (hell, with all the problems they had it might be impossible now). The way our storage medium is moving along we may even lose the knowledge of how the information is placed on the disk. If the data is encrypted it may make it that much worse (although if we have quantum computers working on it that may make it easier; or would it still be hard if the encryption method is no longer known?).
I don’t think it needs a collapse of civilization, just an awful lot of time to pass.
But it’s not just mundane things, such as packing lists and legal documents; items that may be stored on acid-free paper in an airtight vault. We’re moving towards an all digital world. Newspapers are losing traction in the physical world, and that’s a huge archeological loss. If they go all digital and don’t have a paper backup, they could be lost forever in a relatively short period of time. If eBook readers really sweep the world then paper books may take a back seat when the next “book of the generation” is written. Would we have Beowulf now if it were stored on a cassette tape? How many other works of literature have been lost because there was no mass production and someone dropped their only papyrus copy in a river?
I suppose then, that’s the real answer. Information cannot be kept forever. Even if engraved in a stone, that stone can be worn down. Or, if we take @ragingloli‘s idea, we can make it permanent (unless the moon is beat up a’la “Thundarr” or it falls into the Earth) even if it’s not readable.
I suppose it’s not any better or any worse than it has been.