'Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.'

Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think.” The Atlantic July 1945. The Atlantic. Web. 19 July 2013

Last weekend The Weekend Australian published a feature story in their glossy about a team of historians chipping away at the records of over 70, 000 Tasmanian convicts. Who knew British prisoners shipped over in the 1800's were so well documented?

(From the scars on their bodies and lurgies suffered in-transit by boat, to their movements within the gaol system and sometimes beyond to noble status?)

These records are being digitised. The story pointed out that MIT in the US are compiling the largest international database of human records ever, in their attempt to digitise / prolong / maintain / be buried under history.