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They're storing it on the moon. I think if you can manage to get to the moon, you'll be able to get a good enough microscope.
by Thorrez 3y ago
They're storing it on the moon. I think if you can manage to get to the moon, you'll be able to get a good enough microscope.
- cwillu 3y agoPlot twist: when they get to the location, they find a similar plate already there from the last time earthlings climbed out of the mud.
- TedDoesntTalk 3y ago…but the reading device (not a microscope but some unrecognizable tech) did not survive.
- shiroiuma 3y agoAny decently-designed library like this is going to have some type of easily-read instruction sheet that shows how the bulk of the data is encoded and how to read it, perhaps with plans for a device to do so.
- TedDoesntTalk 3y agoYes but it is very possible such a README does not survive, is lost, or separated from the library.
- krisoft 3y ago> not a microscope but some unrecognizable tech But that is the beauty of a microscope. It is not some “unrecognizable tech”. Seeing tiny things in detail is a basic skill many new civilisations can re-discover on their own. It doesn’t matter if it is our human descendants, smart octopuses or the silurians. They will be interested in seeing tiny things and thus they will construct their equivalent of microscopes. The important thing is sign-posting. How will they know where to look?
- TedDoesntTalk 3y agoWhy would octopuses be interested in seeing tiny things?
- Thorrez 3y agoIf they develop a civilization, they'll want to develop technology that requires tiny parts (e.g. computers).
- m463 3y agois it a tall, black obelisk?
- kgabis 3y agoAnd after decoding and translating it starts with "We're no strangers to love..."
- mikeInAlaska 3y agoWhen we reached the Moon in 1969, could we have read it?
- Dylan16807 3y agoYes, extremely easily.
- krisoft 3y agoMicroscopes are old tech. The first ones were constructed in around 1600.
- RetroTechie 3y agoIn a "humanity collapse" scenario, for surviving humans it would be much much much more valuable to have 'reboot instructions' for hunter-gatherer to industrial society, than beyond. Of course you'd want to do both (early steps, and advanced knowledge). And there will be various kinds of low-hanging fruit, to propel newly-industrialized society into the space faring internet age. Skipping resource-wasting, fossil burning stages entirely. As for culture (novels, music, games, software, movies, etc): who cares, whatever makes it through the bottleneck in whatever way, shape or form.
- aezart 3y agoThe "Zones of Thought" series explored this. It was well-understood that societies could easily collapse and would need to start over from scratch repeatedly, particularly in the slow zones of the galaxy where advanced AI and FTL weren't possible.