Until now, old snapshots and home movies faded and crumbled and were eventually (i) . Only a few precious mementos were preserved and passed along. But as photography moves into the digital realm, family albums and home videos see capable of (ii) : our capacity to store them is, for all practical purposes, approaching the infinite. Is such a transformation a good thing? The natural world teaches us that (iii) are vital to ecological health. Does a similar principle apply to communal memory?