The premise behind tech start-up Blocktech's Alexandria project is pretty simple: the Library of Alexandria wouldn't have been destroyed had there been a back-up unless the back-ups had been destroyed too.

As many readers are surely aware, the Library of Alexandria was an Egyptian wonder that was destroyed during a war which Rome (who at the time ruled Egypt) was losing. Obviously there is no footage from the event, but historical accounts contend that it was Caesar himself who inadvertently started the fire by burning his own ships.

Mankind will never know how much we really lost from the Library of Alexandria, but with much of the world's communications and information going digital, and with national defense efforts by most countries pushing toward cyber warfare, Blocktech believes that it could happen again. Is it possible to completely eradicate anything from the Internet? While it technically is possible, it would take a massive effort and a lot of intelligence. The goal of a cyberwarfare effort in the direction of eradicating information and knowledge wouldn't be as much to succeed in full erasure, it would be more focused on disruption.