Why it’s important to take out the trash

As Moore’s law has seen the regular doubling of processor power every two to three years, the cost of storage, both local and online, has declined at a steady, rapid pace, giving rise to a tremendous capacity for capturing our digital lives in words, photos, video and sound.

What has accompanied, even compelled, the need for this massive increase in storage space is in part the amount of data we generate. High-resolution photos have surpassed print film while audio now carries the quality of the live performance. What’s more, the human tendency to horde everything digital has been compounded by advanced…