About this episode

Helen Packham discusses the importance of preserving stories and languages with Andrew Warner from the Long Now Foundation.

What if the greatest threat to our stories isn’t forgetting, but losing the ability to read them? In this fascinating conversation, Helen speaks with Andrew Warner, Special Projects Director at the Long Now Foundation , an organisation dedicated to fostering long-term thinking over the next 10,000 years. They explore the Rosetta Project, endangered languages, the Digital Dark Age, the 10,000-Year Clock, and why preserving language may be one of humanity’s most important acts of stewardship. Along the way you’ll hear about the Rosetta Disc currently resting on a comet, another archive on the Moon, endangered languages, the Antikythera Mechanism, Voyager’s Golden Record, and the remarkable human desire to leave something meaningful behind. This is a conversation about legacy, stewardship and the stories that connect past, present and future. You’ll discover: ✓ Why future generations may struggle to read our digital records ✓ How the Rosetta Stone inspired a modern attempt to preserve the world’s languages ✓ Why linguists estimate that most of today’s languages may disappear within the next century ✓ How language carries ecological, medicinal and cultural knowledge ✓ Why stories are…

People in this episode

Host: Helen Packham

Guest: Andrew Warner

Topics covered

• storytelling
• language preservation
• long-term thinking
• cultural memory
• legacy
• stewardship

Keywords

• endangered languages
• Digital Dark Age
• 10,000-Year Clock
• cultural knowledge
• ecological knowledge
• stewardship
• legacy
• long-term thinking

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Long Now Foundation, Rosetta Project

Books & works: Rosetta Stone, Antikythera Mechanism, Voyager’s Golden Record

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