Deterioration of the digital?

There's a very interesting article at insidehighered.com, At Libraries, Taking the (Really) Long View. Aimed at a general audience, the article is nonetheless interesting for those in the field, beginning the detailed discussion of digital preservation with the story of the tapes from NASA's Viking landers in 1975. The article is rich in links to current projects so is more than just background reading--it's a gateway to exploration of the topic.

At the conclusion of the article we learn what the biggest obstacle to digital preservation is--would you be surprised to learn that it's human beings?