Preserve Knowledge to Secure Our Future

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Human civilization faces a critical need to improve the backing up of cultural and scientific data, as we currently lack a cohesive strategy to preserve essential information. While institutions like the Internet Archive make efforts, reliance on a few corporations poses risks to the continuity of vital journals and data. The loss of internet history highlights the urgency of documenting our thoughts, actions, and identity, especially as copyright concerns complicate access to information. A concerted effort is necessary to safeguard our collective legacy and prevent the erasure of knowledge.

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How much energy is needed for GDP growth? Would our civilization have developed at the same rate without fossil fuels? Could we potentially do the same things we're currently doing but with significantly less energy? How different would the world look if we'd developed nuclear energy much earlier? Why can't anything go faster than light? Will the heat death of the universe really be "the end" for everything? How can difficult concepts be communicated in simple ways that nevertheless avoid being misleading or confusing? Is energy conservation an unbreakable law? How likely is it that advanced alien civilizations exist? What are S-risks? Can global civilizations be virtuous? What is panspermia? How can we make better backups of our knowledge and culture?

Anders Sandberg is a researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies in Sweden. He was formerly senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at University of Oxford. His research deals with emerging technologies, the ethics of human enhancement, global and existential risks, and very long-range futures. Follow him on Twitter / X at @anderssandberg, find him via his various links here.

Staff