There's no doubt we'll have the technology to efficiently preserve by transcription any data we choose by just moving it onto other media. My concern is that we may choose not to do so, if the data isn't of interest, or if it is considered incorrect, or if there is no immediate financial incentive to do so. Sometimes the age that makes that decision may not consider the needs of future generations.

From our history, much of our knowledge of the past comes from manual copying, Arabic copies of Latin copies of Greek copies, etc., so the situation is not unprecedented. Too bad the library at Alexandria burned down. By the way, do you know if SDAI still has his library card?