Some gadgets just die for no good reason. Such is the case with the WikiReader.
The premise, back in 2010, was to cram all of Wikipedia onto a pocketable square that used two AA batteries and a power-sipping, sunlight-readable screen.
This thing would have been great once we figure how to travel back in time. Imagine having all of Wikipedia in your pocket back in the Dark Ages or whatever. Actually, scratch that: you’d probably be killed by a pitchfork-toting hoard of angry locals for showing off your vast Beyoncé knowledge.
But also imagine having all of Wikipedia in your pocket once the apocalypse hits and we head into our underground bunkers, flush with AA batteries but without access to the World Wide Web.
Alas, the WikiReader was undoubtedly killed off by non-believers and their smartphones. It won’t always be this easy, people!
For the rest of us, we can still download all of Wikipedia. We’ll just need somewhere to put it once the sun burns out.
As far as the backstory for the above video goes, I remember it being a lot of leg-work but I wanted to do a good job for my new overlords at TIME. I also remember it driving very little traffic, which was a tough but good lesson to learn early on.