Mandy Brown eloquently explains why most people have a hard time grasping forever.
On many an occasion, I’ve spoken with someone about their reluctance to get a tattoo and heard something to the effect of “I can’t imagine making a decision that would last forever.” My somewhat cheeky response has always been to say it won’t last forever; it will only last as long as you do, which is to say, not very long at all. But most of the time, and for most people, “forever” is that piece of time that we can see with our own eyes. Forever is the length of a single, human life.
She goes on to relate it to the sunsetting of web services like Delicious, which caused incredible upheaval amongst those who depend on it.
Instead of a single life, I hope that we think of forever as the amount of time in which a piece of information is useful. Beyond that point, it is best laid to bed.