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I love the fictional idea that I have that some billionaire will create multiple underground caverns around the world in geologically stable places, each contai

I love the fictional idea that I have that some billionaire will create multiple underground caverns around the world in geologically stable places, each containing the knowledge of the world - engraved onto aluminum plates. A vast cavern of tunnels and chambers and catacombs built only to preserve the worlds knowledge. I imagine in 10,000 years some future explorers making their way into such a cavern and finding all of the knowledge of the present time like some sort of treasure. Perhaps with a big engraving of the God Jeff Bezos engraved in the stone wall for eternity.

lloeki 4y ago
Cue AWA, which is where GHACV is stored (IIUC on film, not aluminium though) > For greater data density and integrity, most data was stored QR-encoded, and compressed. A human-readable index and guide found on every reel explains how to recover the data.The 02/02/2020 snapshot, consisting of 21TB of data, was archived to 186 reels of film by our archive partners Piql and then transported to the Arctic Code Vault, where it resides today. https://archiveprogram.github.com/arctic-vault/ https://archiveprogram.github.com/arctic-vault/ https://arcticworldarchive.org/ https://arcticworldarchive.org/
musingsole 4y ago
That is surprisingly close to some plot points of the Mistborn Trilogy from Brandon Sanderson: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistborn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistborn
- timemct 4y ago
  Whenever I read something about leaving messages for future peoples, my mind drifts back to this Mistborn quote, "I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted."
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
There's a few projects like that already happening, like Github's code repository on Svalbard. That said, I think one big reason why the artifacts mentioned - Sumerians, Mayans, Egyptians, or even Vesuvius - were preserved was because they were lost; buried in the desert, overgrown in dense jungles, buried under volcanic rock and ash, etc. For something to stand the test of time, it has to be lost. Al-Quaeda and ISIS have destroyed visible historic monuments and documents, for example, and some people in the US are advocating for the removal and burning of certain books as well. So yeah, underground caves and hidden monuments would probably be best, although the collapse of society may take care of that as well. Another option: Time capsules of data sent out into space in containers that can survive re-entry in thousands of years. Ideally with a lot of flashy light effects and a persistent smoke trail on re-entry.
- GoldenRacer 4y ago
  The space container idea could make for a really interesting book plot. It starts in modern day where they send the capsule up. Then skips forward several hundred years to society collapsing. Then skip forward a few hundred more to see how the myth of knowledge falling from the sky is being passed down. Then it keeps skipping ahead to see how the myth evolves. By the end you just have some super cryptic prophecy like "god will descend from the heavens to bring about heaven on earth" and then it actually happens.
  - chihuahua 4y ago
    They open the capsule, and find that it contains nothing but a complete transcript of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial.
    - zyx321 4y ago
      You say that as a joke, but it would say a lot about contemporary American culture. Just think about the gender roles on display, a women attacks her husband and gloats that society will side with her. Not to mention the meta-layer, the celebrity worship that would compel someone to preserve this particular document of all things.
manicdee 4y ago
Ted Faro is the guy to speak to. He is into preserving the knowledge of generations for the enrichment of humanity.
dghughes 4y ago
Non-alloy aluminum is too soft sapphire would be more durable ironically (?) it's a form of aluminum oxide. Diamond would be even better. Maybe we are wearing the messages of an ancient civilization in the form of diamonds?
- irdc 4y ago
  The problem with these materials is that they're worth something when cut up into pieces. Something that isn't true for clay.
dr_dshiv 4y ago
This reminds me of a method to develop time travel: A thousand beautiful stone tablets are buried and sunk all around the world in multiple languages. The tablets announce the purpose of the experiment and share a series of dates and precise locations. In those places and times, a set of extremely sensitive sensors are set up to listen. If one is reasonably confident that the tablets will be discovered in a 1000 years, and if there is some unknown physics that enables sending information back in time, then a communication channel could be set up allowing the flow of future tech into the past. And worst case, we are left with a bunch of beautiful stone tablets for future generations to ponder over.
Narishma 4y ago
> I love the fictional idea that I have that some billionaire will create multiple underground caverns around the world in geologically stable places, each containing the knowledge of the world - engraved onto aluminum plates. You mean the knowledge that said billionaire deems important, and/or makes them look good.
rockfishroll 4y ago
There's a sci-fi book 'The Mote In God's Eye' that touches on this concept. Spoiler Alert... Humans discover an alien planet/race and eventually realize they've destroyed and rebuilt civilization many times. They've learned to build 'museums' for future civilizations to discover that house a roadmap to all of their advanced technology, but biological constraints (they have to reproduce or they die, ensuring extreme population pressure) mean that global war is basically inevitable. So they're stuck speed-running this cycle where they start from the stone age, rapidly rebuild an extremely advanced society based on guidance from the 'museums', experience extreme population growth, bomb themselves back into the stone age, rinse and repeat. There's a hope that if they can just push technology a little bit further each cycle, they might be able to reach a point where they can resolve the underlying issue, but it's unclear if that's a pipe dream. Interesting take on the "pre-tech society discovers keys to future tech" trope. Does advanced technology actually solve all problems, or just it just let us skip ahead along the timeline to the same conclusion?

lloeki 4y ago

Cue AWA, which is where GHACV is stored (IIUC on film, not aluminium though) > For greater data density and integrity, most data was stored QR-encoded, and compressed. A human-readable index and guide found on every reel explains how to recover the data.The 02/02/2020 snapshot, consisting of 21TB of data, was archived to 186 reels of film by our archive partners Piql and then transported to the Arctic Code Vault, where it resides today. https://archiveprogram.github.com/arctic-vault/ https://archiveprogram.github.com/arctic-vault/ https://arcticworldarchive.org/ https://arcticworldarchive.org/

musingsole 4y ago

That is surprisingly close to some plot points of the Mistborn Trilogy from Brandon Sanderson: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistborn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistborn

timemct 4y ago
Whenever I read something about leaving messages for future peoples, my mind drifts back to this Mistborn quote, "I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted."

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Cthulhu_ 4y ago

There's a few projects like that already happening, like Github's code repository on Svalbard. That said, I think one big reason why the artifacts mentioned - Sumerians, Mayans, Egyptians, or even Vesuvius - were preserved was because they were lost; buried in the desert, overgrown in dense jungles, buried under volcanic rock and ash, etc. For something to stand the test of time, it has to be lost. Al-Quaeda and ISIS have destroyed visible historic monuments and documents, for example, and some people in the US are advocating for the removal and burning of certain books as well. So yeah, underground caves and hidden monuments would probably be best, although the collapse of society may take care of that as well. Another option: Time capsules of data sent out into space in containers that can survive re-entry in thousands of years. Ideally with a lot of flashy light effects and a persistent smoke trail on re-entry.

GoldenRacer 4y ago
The space container idea could make for a really interesting book plot. It starts in modern day where they send the capsule up. Then skips forward several hundred years to society collapsing. Then skip forward a few hundred more to see how the myth of knowledge falling from the sky is being passed down. Then it keeps skipping ahead to see how the myth evolves. By the end you just have some super cryptic prophecy like "god will descend from the heavens to bring about heaven on earth" and then it actually happens.
- chihuahua 4y ago
  They open the capsule, and find that it contains nothing but a complete transcript of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial.
  - zyx321 4y ago
    You say that as a joke, but it would say a lot about contemporary American culture. Just think about the gender roles on display, a women attacks her husband and gloats that society will side with her. Not to mention the meta-layer, the celebrity worship that would compel someone to preserve this particular document of all things.

manicdee 4y ago

Ted Faro is the guy to speak to. He is into preserving the knowledge of generations for the enrichment of humanity.

dghughes 4y ago

Non-alloy aluminum is too soft sapphire would be more durable ironically (?) it's a form of aluminum oxide. Diamond would be even better. Maybe we are wearing the messages of an ancient civilization in the form of diamonds?

irdc 4y ago
The problem with these materials is that they're worth something when cut up into pieces. Something that isn't true for clay.

dr_dshiv 4y ago

This reminds me of a method to develop time travel: A thousand beautiful stone tablets are buried and sunk all around the world in multiple languages. The tablets announce the purpose of the experiment and share a series of dates and precise locations. In those places and times, a set of extremely sensitive sensors are set up to listen. If one is reasonably confident that the tablets will be discovered in a 1000 years, and if there is some unknown physics that enables sending information back in time, then a communication channel could be set up allowing the flow of future tech into the past. And worst case, we are left with a bunch of beautiful stone tablets for future generations to ponder over.

Narishma 4y ago

> I love the fictional idea that I have that some billionaire will create multiple underground caverns around the world in geologically stable places, each containing the knowledge of the world - engraved onto aluminum plates. You mean the knowledge that said billionaire deems important, and/or makes them look good.

rockfishroll 4y ago

There's a sci-fi book 'The Mote In God's Eye' that touches on this concept. Spoiler Alert... Humans discover an alien planet/race and eventually realize they've destroyed and rebuilt civilization many times. They've learned to build 'museums' for future civilizations to discover that house a roadmap to all of their advanced technology, but biological constraints (they have to reproduce or they die, ensuring extreme population pressure) mean that global war is basically inevitable. So they're stuck speed-running this cycle where they start from the stone age, rapidly rebuild an extremely advanced society based on guidance from the 'museums', experience extreme population growth, bomb themselves back into the stone age, rinse and repeat. There's a hope that if they can just push technology a little bit further each cycle, they might be able to reach a point where they can resolve the underlying issue, but it's unclear if that's a pipe dream. Interesting take on the "pre-tech society discovers keys to future tech" trope. Does advanced technology actually solve all problems, or just it just let us skip ahead along the timeline to the same conclusion?