Last week, I fell into a rabbit hole I still haven’t climbed out of.
Because once a digital forest is clear cut, you can't plant a new one that feels the same. You can only visit the archive. virgin forest internet archive
Conservationists know that a healthy virgin forest needs "dead wood" on the forest floor. Fallen logs feed the soil. Rotting matter allows new things to grow. Last week, I fell into a rabbit hole
But the ? That is the old growth.
When I look at the Internet Archive, I am not just looking at old websites. I am looking at the digital equivalent of a 500-year-old oak tree. It has survived link rot, server crashes, and corporate buyouts. Conservationists know that a healthy virgin forest needs
There is a phrase ecologists use that has always broken my heart a little:
I realized recently that we have a digital equivalent of this, and it lives at the . But unlike the physical virgin forests, which are shrinking, the digital virgin forest of the old web is growing—even if it is a ghost forest.