Classifieds

Commentary
Today's tsunami of economic, social, technological, and geopolitical dislocation may be more than a temporary setback for humanity. It could lead to an erosion of the ability to access the fragile media we have used to record our lives.
The loss of the mostly papyrus-based documents in the great fire at the Library of Alexandria was already a disaster from which the world never fully recovered. What we face today is potentially a far more serious human setback.
Part of the challenge is that we are in a period of a tectonic shift in human history with the fortunate or unfortunate characteristic that it is perceived as "business as usual" and not as a period of extreme change. We see no urgency in finding ways to preserve or even understand history. We see learning consigned to fragile electronic storage, which is even more perishable than papyrus or paper....