How do we disappear?

Mulaney, a Stanford University researcher and author of four books on Chinese history and technology, describes himself as “a historian interested in how things disappear.” Shaken by his father's death, he seeks to understand it through the tools of the historian, looking through the lens of the archive. In the process, he takes us on a poignant philosophical journey, exploring the physical evidence we leave behind on our life's journey. Short, smooth chapters, packed with meticulous detail on human impacts, drawn from extensive research in photography, biology,Physics, and cultural studies. The connecting thread is entropy, in all its forms, throughout history. Wax cylinders from the time of Thomas Edison cannot be played on a phonograph, as this would damage them. New techniques for digitizing their surfaces restore sounds, but digital files are also on their way to entropy. Mulaney explores the many forms of information that cycle through our lives—birth and death certificates, ultrasound images, family photos that capture a moment in time, genetic files—all of which reflect...aspects of experience, but they remain rigid, limited, and partial images, unable to comprehend most of the intimate human experience. Simply digitizing physical archives, which is a daunting task, will not prevent their loss. Mulaney cites Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, who believes that much of the contemporary record resides in “doomed platforms like Slack, Gmail, Facebook Direct Messaging, and others.” Some analogies may seem exaggerated to readers - like comparing removing someone from a photo to completely ignoring them on social mediasocial, for example – but most are memorable, even moving, depictions of multiple forms of disintegration. Ultimately, Mulaney's explorations of the archive are comforting, bringing him back to his family and the world.