To digitise and restore the worlds largest collection of audio and visual recordings within the scientific community, spanning over 50 years
The Three of us - Bob Coecke, Ivette Fuentes and Roger Penrose - have come together to support and help complete a project which, since the early 1970’s, has been recording lectures, conferences and discussions within the scientific community worldwide.
During the past 52 years this project has amassed over 100,000 hours of content from the greatest minds in science as they proposed & debated some of the most revolutionary concepts of our time.
What began as a one-man operation by Cambridge University graduate Mike Wright is now supported by a registered charity chaired by Sir Roger Penrose (Nobel laureate 2020) and includes other leading scientists as advisers and trustees.
The aim of the project is unchanged since it began : to record moments of genuine scientific discovery and deep insight as they unfold and share them with the rest of the world. The great Physicist Ernst Mach - who had such an important influence on Einstein - wrote that an idea is only ever understood when the route by which it came is understood. This Archive provides a real time record of some of the greatest ideas as they made that journey - from the first faltering glimpses, often from multiple viewpoints, through growth into unified concepts and onwards to the point at which they become the common currency of an entire field of inquiry.
Knowledge is power and we believe passionately in the democratic access to fundamental scientific knowledge. We do not want this incredible Archive to end up monetized behind a pay wall.
The majority of this treasure trove of ideas exist solely on their original carriers. But with your generous support we aim to complete the transfer of these recordings jnto secure permanent digital media. A searchable database can then be created, where this oral history, capturing the thoughts of some of the most prolific and fascinating minds over the past century, can be carefully preserved and in due course be made available to all.
For the time being only those recordings can be shared which are already out of copyright or for which there are release forms specifically granting permission for the recording to be put on line. However that is already many thousands of recordings. More can become available as copyright lapses, or where recorded speakers add permissions.
Imagine being a fly on the wall when Steven Hawking first discussed black hole radiation or hear Alexandre Grothendieck describe how he first glimpsed the concept of a topos
This truly unique collection is both one of the single deepest research tools and historically important records of modern science anywhere in the world.
By donating to our crowd funder you are directly helping everyone access this incredible collection. Help us to preserve the knowledge in these recordings for future generations to share freely.
The Archive contains records of the work of many hundreds of thinkers. But some of the highlights include recordings of the following influential figures
In Mathematics : Grothendieck, Atiyah, Penrose, Woodin, Lawvere, MacLane, Eilenberg, Benabou, Cartier, Serre, Joyal, Kock, Reyes, Baez, Angus MacIntyre, Dana Scott, Mostowski, Kreisel, John L. Bell, Machover, Freyd, Johnstone, Hyland, Moerdijk
In Physics : Penrose, Hawking, Wheeler, Ashtekar, Ward, Geroch, Sciama, Salam, Bondi, Finkelstein, Pirani, Isham, Bohm and Hiley, Segal
In Philosophy Popper, Quine, Dummett, Davidson, Wiggins, Badiou
In the History and Philosophy of Science : Post, Redhead, Butterfield, Ladyman, Knox, Wallace, Saunders, Brown
Digitisation – A big effort has already begun to digitise the older pre-digital recordings - there are over 7,000 of these spread across multiple formats dating back to the early 1970s. Some of the money generated will be used to digitise the remaining and more problematic items.
Restoration – As a proportion of the recordings were created in sub optimal conditions some digital enhancement and restoration is required. We currently use state of the art digital audio restoration tools such as CEDAR ( = Computer Enhanced Digital Audio Restoration ) to bring the dusty 1970s recordings up to modern standards.
Database creation & hosting – Finally we will use the remaining budget to transform our humble metadata spreadsheet of the collection into a fully searchable database.
We greatly appreciate any help and donations big or small and please share our appeal.
A Postscript about the video : Roger Penrose has asked us to make clear that
Regarding the film "The Theory of Everything" the Archive does not contain any record of the lecture by Roger Penrose depicted in that film which took place in 1963, ten years before the Archive was begun
It does contain records of many other later lectures by Roger Penrose, at some of which Stephen Hawking was present. We hope this removes any possible misunderstanding
Thanks for reading.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made