Do we lose the past by moving forward?

I read blog postings (skim through most and really read the minority) using a reader. Most of the time, therefore, I'm only looking at one item at a time and not going to the actual weblog site and reading sidebars, comments etc. Even for the "I really need to read this" ones I don't always go to the site before taking some action:

• email link to Dawn to make a decision as to whether to include the item in Members' Update
• email link to myself because it's to do with something that I'm interested in on a personal level maybe some learning opportunity e.g. a "how-to" (either work or pleasure), it could be a new application that I want to study in more depth or even an exhortation to work smarter not harder/longer
• grab the details for using in one of ADSET's weblogs -- it's either "careersy" or it's "businessy" and that defines which of the two blogs it goes to ... but

... what do I do with a piece which came to me via Library Link of the Day entitled "Cultural past of the digital age"? It's on the BBC News site. Bill Thompson, in what is more of a short essay than a news report, asks whether books and film have a place in the modern world.
Short answer is, I put it here and just hope that you have the time to go and read it. I believe that we are in danger of losing our cultural past by moving headlong into a digital future -- and if we're not careful we'll be losing that past more and more rapidly as our culture becomes more ephemeral.