Erasure, Historical Cleansing, and the Disappeared

Image by Susan Wilkinson.

Jonathan E.: Misplaced some data?

Computer Center Archivist: “The whole of the 13th century. Misplaced the computers, several conventional computers. We can’t find them. We’re always moving things around, getting organized, my assistants and I. This – this is Zero’s fault – Zero, he’s the world’s file cabinet; pity, poor old 13th century.

—Rollerball

In the original 1975 film Rollerball, the misplacement of history was a mistake, the “disappearing”...