What efforts are currently being made to preserve human knowledge and culture (great literature, scientific theory, et cetera) for far-future generations, or in the event of a worldwide catastrophe?
I never knew about the Rosetta Project, but it sounds fantastic, as does Norway’s doomsday vault.
One comment
I read a while ago in the Economist about the doomsday vault and several other seed banks, and there seemed to be a major component that that article and this linked one don’t address. Imagine this (likely) scenario:
A great catastrophe occurs. You are one of the few survivors, due to your quick reflexes and superhuman inteligence. Being the natural leader you are, you gather what is left of humanity together. They survey the barren landscape, their eyes full of dispair… “what can we do?” they ask you. You rally their hopes around the DOOMESDAY VAULT! A fortuitous gift from the previous utopian society — a collection of every seed type on the planet! It can be used to regenerate the flaua on Earth! You are saved!
So. How the heck to we get to an island in the middle of the arctic, and how do we get past the polar bears, and how do we get through the “metre-thick walls of reinforced concrete [..] behind two airlocks and high-security blast-proof doors.”
Sweet. Who has the key?