Pentameter

2024 First Edition
 

Welcome back to the human future.

The Pentameter Foundation was established to restore literature as a pure expression of humanity, free of economic pressures, propaganda, and technological capture.
 
 
 

In the Digital Age, multiple threats to literature and the arts have emerged.

AI Large Language Models lower the cost to produce visual and written content to zero. Just as economic inflation ravages our wallets, content inflation threatens to do the same to our artistic heritage.
Digitization of literature makes it vulnerable to politically-driven "rewrite" attacks. The incentives to create new propaganda by altering an existing text have never been higher, and the cost to do so is now almost zero.
Life in the 21st century puts financial pressures on artists that have never existed before in history. The need for money is everywhere, and is all consuming.

To overcome the threats of the Digital Age, we cannot merely preserve original texts. We must be able to verify them.


Our vision has 4 key elements:

1. Preserve Originals

The Pentameter Collection is our ever-growing collection of first edition books and original artwork. We meticulously conserve these works with the goal of sharing their beauty with the public forever. They serve as source material for content verification.

2. Establish Trust in Copies

The Pentameter Verified certification mark (the "V" seal) is a distinction given to any published version of text that has been cryptographically verified by the Pentameter Foundation to be a true copy of the original work, character for character.

3. Partner with Stewards

In combination with the Pentameter Collection of originals, we expand coverage of our Verified texts by partnering with collectors and other stewards of original texts, such as libraries and museums. We see a world where the integrity of every book is preserved forever.

4. Inspire Living Writers

The 1000-Year Prize is a $250,000 award established to inspire writers to think far out into the future, beyond the next rent payment, the next job, beyond the ends of their own lives. We simply ask, "Will we still be reading this in 1000 years?" Winning works are canonized into the Pentameter Collection.

Will your great-grandchildren be reading the same Harry Potter that ignited your imagination as a child?

Or will it be something else?

The Pentameter Foundation

© 2024