Zeit Online: “The Internet is forever. At least, that was the promise — and the threat — of the digital age, echoed across browsers, clouds, and platforms. A silent warning accompanied every upload: be careful what you post — this will last forever. But with each passing day, it becomes increasingly clear how deceptive that appearance is. Vast portions of the internet have already vanished because their caretakers abandoned them or found them unprofitable. Archives are disappearing, online libraries are closing, and entire segments of digital culture are being lost forever.  This isn’t just happening to obscure corners of the internet. According to a Pew Research Center study, 38% of all websites that existed in 2013 were no longer available by October 2023. Even the mighty Wikipedia is not immune to the phenomenon; 54% of all English-language articles link to at least one source that has since disappeared. Researchers call this phenomenon “digital decay.” The idea that the internet itself could decay seems counterintuitive. For so long, it appeared to be ethereal and immaterial — eternal, even. In 1996, digital activist John Perry Barlow envisioned the internet as a realm where “everything created by the human mind could be reproduced and distributed infinitely and free of charge,” as he wrote in his Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace. But this lofty vision overlooked the mundane realities of the digital world.   The internet isn’t made of light and air or fairy dust. It’s built on rare earth minerals, satellites, undersea cables, server farms, and power plants. Maintaining and distributing digital content isn’t effortless or free, and in the logic of the marketplace, anything that costs money must justify its existence. What fails to turn a profit is discarded…”