The library of Alexandria was a vast repository of ancient texts that was burnt to the ground by Caesar in 48 B.C. While this is distant history, its lesson is still with us today: destroying records of what happened in the past is a tool of totalitarians, who do not wish that the narratives, upon which their present reign rests, are put into question.

This is precisely why digital book burnings are such a profound threat to human liberty.

As George Orwell said: “Who controls the present, controls the past. Who controls the past, controls the future.”

What: It is our goal to assemble a group of volunteers, who are willing to dedicate time & effort towards the gathering and saving of information that, if digital book burnings were to occur in our time, would be vital to maintain an opposition to totalitarian political systems. We seek to collect important resources in the fields such as history, philosophy, social sciences and economics. While our objectivity is not up for debate, it is our intention to always contrast the narratives of subjugation and control with the ones promoting human flourishing.

Why: Online censorship is on the rise throughout the world. While it is still possible for tech-savvy individuals to access a plethora of information online and do so anonymously, it is undoubtedly a thorn in the side of authoritarian governments. We want to be prepared in case they ever attempted to implement far-reaching censorship of free speech online.

The end goal: Ideally, we would end up with an offline encyclopedia to the above-mentioned fields of knowledge. To whomever desired to possess such a thing on an external hard drive, we would then be able to pass this on.

How: In our first meeting we want to discuss several questions: which content do we want to include? Which research tools and resources will we rely on? Which format will we collect it in?