Internet pioneer Brewster Kahle has a dream – universal access to all knowledge
The Internet Archive is a Library of Alexandria for the digital age, the world’s largest digital archive of books, video, websites and music. Based in a former Christian Science church in San Francisco, its towering servers sit in what was once the church organist’s room, emitting enough heat to keep the whole building warm in winter. Overseeing the entire operation is Brewster Kahle, founder of the archive, whose goal since 1996 has been to put knowledge within everyone’s reach, no matter their location or financial circumstances.
Director: Jonathan Minard
videoNature and landscape
Scenes from Aboriginal Australian pottery chart the turn of the seasons
7 minutes
videoEthics
What’s an idea worth? How prominent thinkers have understood intellectual property
6 minutes
videoEcology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
6 minutes
videoKnowledge
Why David Deutsch believes good explanations are the antidote to bad philosophy
10 minutes
videoChildhood and adolescence
‘Do worms cry?’ – and other questions collected from the mind of a curious child
4 minutes
videoLanguage and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
videoComputing and artificial intelligence
Why large language models are mysterious – even to their creators
8 minutes
videoEthics
Plato saw little value in privacy. How do his ideas hold up in the information age?
5 minutes
videoInformation and communication
‘Astonished and somewhat terrified’ – Victorians’ reactions to the phonograph
36 minutes