IF YOU have got a VHS tape that you cannot play, or a floppy disc that you cannot read, you have officially entered the digital dark ages.
Remember WordStar for word processing in the 1980s? Many of us remember using WordPerfect and Lotus 123 - but do you have these applications in your workplace now?
Information stored in these formats can no longer be accessed (or at least, not without much difficulty) and, because of this, is now lost. Are there any guarantees that Microsoft Word or cloud-based software will be "readable" in 50 years' time or will the file formats be obsolete?
The "digital dark ages" is a trendy term that draws a parallel between the lack of written literature and contemporary writing in the early Middle Ages, after the fall of the Roman Empire around the 5th and 6th centuries, and the precariousness of digital information in the 21st century.
It is such a worrying situation that Vint Cerf (father of the internet and Google vice-president) has begun warning businesses to protect themselves against it.