Vint Cerf, a “father of the internet”, says he is worried that all the images and documents we have been saving on computers will eventually be lost.
Currently a Google vice-president, he believes this could occur as hardware and software become obsolete.
He fears that future generations will have little or no record of the 21st Century as we enter what he describes as a “digital Dark Age”.
Mr Cerf made his comments at a large science conference in San Jose.
He arrived at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science stylishly dressed in a three-piece suit. This iconic figure, who helped define how data packets move around the net, is possibly the only Google employee who wears a tie.
I felt obliged to thank him for the internet, and he bowed graciously. “One is glad to be of service,” he said humbly.
His focus now is to resolve a new problem that threatens to eradicate our history.