Can we preserve knowledge … forever?

This episode of the TED Radio Hour explores the urgent challenge of preserving human knowledge and history for eternity in an age of rapid technological obsolescence and climate change. From the rediscovery of Caper in the Castro, the first LGBTQ+ video game, to the efforts of the Internet Archive to save the web through the Wayback Machine, the episode highlights how fragile digital memory can be. Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, discusses the ongoing legal battles over e-book lending and the existential threat of losing cultural records. The conversation then shifts to cutting-edge solutions like DNA data storage, where molecular biologist Dina Zielinski explains how digital information can be encoded in synthetic DNA for millennia. Finally, archaeologist Chris Fisher introduces The Earth Archive, a global initiative to use LIDAR technology to scan and preserve the planet’s surface before climate change and human activity erase it forever. Together, these stories paint a picture of humanity’s collective responsibility to document, protect, and pass on knowledge across generations.