Celsius 450

The Encyclopedia Foundation is, of a necessity, inordinately preoccupied with the preservation of books. True, we are going to have books transcribed on metal plates, but we have regular books, and plan on having more.

Such books have utility for the short term – the next century or two. Were civilization to run into problems, it would be handy to have paper books to refer to. In fact, so long as civilization continues, and the Encyclopedia Foundation continues, too, we will continually update with paper copies.
By paper, we mean hardback books of paper.

What if civilization continues, though, but books are outlawed? It seems unlikely, but we all are aware of Ray Bradbury’s classic book “Fahrenheit 451” in which the government sought out and burned books wherever they found them. The title was supposed to be the temperature at which paper spontaneously combusts.

At the Encyclopedia Foundation, we needed more than Mr. Bradbury’s word for it, though we do admire his writings, so we looked into that. Turns out paper combusts at 450 degrees Celsius, or “Fahrenheit 842”. Oops. But a good “oops” in that it takes a bit more heat for a book to burn than most think.

We still weren’t sure so we baked a book in the oven at 450 degrees. For half an hour. It didn’t burn. We hope you appreciate the efforts we at the Encyclopedia Foundation make on behalf of humanity! Our tireless Foundation researchers conduct important experiments like this all the time!

But “Fun with Science” notwithstanding, what is to be done should some future government decide to burn all the books? Well, relax, the Encyclopedia Foundation has you covered!

1. We will not violate the law. As a non-profit organization we are chartered by the government. It would be wrong to do so, and we take that seriously. However, there is no law against books right now, nor is there likely to be for some decades, if not a century or two. So this is not an immediate crisis.

2. Our business plan mandates that we send copies of books preserved on metal plates to various long term organizations. The four main ones are to be the Long Now Foundation, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and a Buddhist Temple in either India or China.

We therefore feel that if on some distant day books are outlawed, that the Latter Day Saints will have probably transferred their libraries to an overseas branch even before the law is passed. Such laws never spring up all at once. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church is based in Rome, and the Buddhists will be in one of the two nations that are likely to be hard to push around in the future.

So if asked by that future government, our successors will tell them where they are and who has them. As would be legally required. We just don’t think that information would do those future authorities much good.

3. However, we have not decided which Buddhist Temple, and when we do, we will not record it. We feel sure that so great a length of time will pass between when we do that, and when books are outlawed (if ever) that we will all be dead, and our successors will not have the information to give. We are aware that this might possibly make us “accessories before the fact” to a crime of the 25th century. But it is not a crime now. Nor will those running the Foundation then be guilty of a crime, they have no say over what we are doing, 100 or 1,000 years before they are born.

4. The Foundation at that future hypothetically dystopic point, now book free and in compliance with those hypothetical laws, will continue on in its other activities. If advocating to legalize books is allowed, we’ll do that. We will continue to give aid to those in need, few governments outlaw that.

One day, books would be legal again. Requests would be sent to Rome and Salt Lake City for the plates, that we may make new copies and send them back. And the mission continues.

(As a side note, we are painfully aware that what Ray Bradbury was really writing about was NOT government book burning – but about a public that preferred “wall screens” and “reality shows” over books, such that eventually there was just no market for them. Only then in his future vision were laws passed – against that which no one at that future time wanted any more.)