EP 1002 Sad, But True: All That’s Here is Destined to One Day Disappear

 We know we are going to die, as difficult as that concept is to get our arms around, but we may imagine that our life’s work, our stuff, must be preserved because it will live on forever, particularly as we can now capture it in digital form.  Some might say that we are living in an era of permanent memory: everything is stored, searchable, and retrievable, especially now as AI systems ingest vast archives of human speech, images and text.  But our guest on this podcast, noted Professor of History at Stanford University, Thomas Mullaney, author of “How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information” provides us with a more unsettling truth: information doesn’t naturally endure.  It breaks down, scatters, becomes unaffordable to recover, and far more than we would like to admit, simply vanishes.  As you’ll discover the forces of entropy (he’ll define it in this context) are more powerful and natural than the order we try to create and sustain.  It just is.  He’s a fascinating man and it’s a topic I was privileged to explore with him.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download