By Marian Prill

Learning from the mistakes of others

Since time travel into the past has become possible on a grand scale, people in the 22nd century understand each other better than ever before.

The time machines contain neither circuit boards nor microchips – not a single cable is built into them. They are made of paper. Their fuel are written texts between book covers, written by billions of people.

International understanding par excellence

After the important invention of letterpress printing in 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg, who revolutionized the world of knowledge and became the pioneer for numerous inventions, mankind fell into the hands of the second missing piece of the puzzle in the last century to raise civilized development to a high level:

Namely, understanding and the method of permanently preserving swarm intelligence and using it systematically for the benefit of all earthlings. This was the general key to solving the most important challenges.

Knowledge is more important than water

Water secures life. And knowledge secures water. Over the past hundred years, knowledge as a resource has made possible developments that previously flickered across cinema screens as science fiction film material: diseases are cured without those affected knowing about them or feeling the treatment.

Social systems live up to their name and mobility has developed to such an extent that world travel across all continents is possible in less than two hours.

A student from Bangladesh has succeeded in drastically shortening the regeneration process of a nutritious plant by combining various knowledge components from the World Library, so that the cultivation of this plant can stop the hunger of disadvantaged areas.

The World Library is filling up with invaluable knowledge

Blind people write books today. People who cannot read and write also. They let software programs guide them through interviews, sharing their knowledge and experience with virtual moderators who record the conversations.

Computer programs transcribe the spoken word and forward it to creative departments, which use software to structure the text in a very short time and refine it by every trick in the book.

One copy of each book will find its place in the World Library and from that point on it will be available for everyone to read and listen to in any language.

One billion books

According to forecasts, the billionth publication is expected to arrive at the World Library on 23 April 2118 – World Book Day.

It will be a book written by a person who probably does not belong to the elite and yet will share his knowledge with mankind.

In his book, as in all other copies that the World Library holds, access is provided to the author’s personal life story and video recordings.

Thus, even a thousand years later, generations will still be able to form an almost complete picture of their ancestors, who had a considerable influence on their own existence and the continued existence of mankind – by making their thoughts available to the world.