Traces
What emerges from this brief comparison of analog and digital traces are first and foremost the profound changes in nature and status: we have moved from the realm of the given to that of the constructed, from scarcity to abundance, from the index to the symbol, from singularity to calculability, from localization to delocalization, from fixity to volatility, from the imprint of the past to the recording of the present, from conservation to the dynamism of traces…
But it is, of course, in the societal issues related to digital traces, mutations are the most spectacular and crucial ones: whether it concerns the control of these digital traces, the protection of personal data, the widespread traceability on the internet, or the question of the future memory of our current times… all these socio-political issues had no equivalents in the analog world, at least not on this scale. (Serres, 2012)