Human Knowledge in the Age of Information, page 4

We have recently heard a great deal about the extraordinarily valuable environmental database provided by ice cores from the frozen regions. This library of climate change and atmospheric gas levels will slowly disappear as the process of global warming continues. It is important that each of us does what we can to support leaders who promote conservation initiatives aimed at slowing, or reversing, this trend.

Like the genetic archive that is lost with the extinction of vulnerable life forms, libraries that deal with our social and political development are both readily corrupted and potentially irreplaceable. The only protection against the model that history belongs to those who write it, or pay for it to be written, is that we retain as much of the primary record as possible, together with the full spectrum of contemporary analysis and opinion about the events in question.

We must continue to insist on freedom of information and, even if sensitive records are subject to black-out periods of up to 50 years for security or personal reasons, it is essential to ensure that such databases be maintained with full integrity. The aphorism that: 'those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it' applies equally to those who are unable to access the necessary records. Destroy the information base and, in the end, we all lose.

This has happened in the past. The fate of the Great Library of Alexandria is an enduring mystery of the ancient world. Started during the reign of Ptolemy II in the 3rd century BC the Library, at its peak, is considered to have housed somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 different items. Visitors to Alexandria were required to hand over any scrolls or books that they were carrying for copying. The Library is thought to have held Aristotle’s private archive.

From all accounts, this was the most comprehensive assembly of human collective wisdom to that time. Its destruction is an enduring tragedy that still resonates today, particularly as it covered the time leading up to, and perhaps including, the early phases of Christianity. It may be a naive hope, but could the discourse between science and religion be more rationally framed if we still had access to these independent accounts of thinking and events over those crucial years?

What happened in ancient Alexandria? Was the collection incinerated during Julius Caesar’s invasion of 47 to 48 BC, or was it finally destroyed as part of the suppression of non-religious pursuits under Flavius Theodosius in the 4th century? Another story has it that the remaining books were burned to heat bath-houses in the 7th century, a process that provided genuine savings to the owners for some six months and could be regarded as an early form of economic rationalism. This would, incidentally, have the Library continuing at some level for almost 1000 years, into the era of the founding of the Islamic world.

Insofar as it is possible, the Great Library of Alexandria has recently been recreated as the Bibliotheca Academia Alexandrinae. I was delighted by the invitation to be one of the founding members. As with the original library, it is outward looking, ecumenical and comprehensive, and is already being visited by 750,000 people a year.

The initiative has had the strong support of President and Mrs Mubarak of Egypt and international organizations like UNESCO, with substantial funds also coming from the Arab countries in the region. In the words of the Director General, the Egyptian diplomat Ismail Seregeldin: 'I want it to be true to the spirit of the old Library of Alexandria—a vibrant intellectual centre, a meeting place for civilizations.' Surely we can all identify with such ideas!