Comments on: What happens to the Library of Congress when the asteroid hits?

Question: What happens to the Library of Congress when the asteroid hits?

fermion — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 19:24:05 -0800

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'm thinking about something with the same kind of timescale as the Long Now project. I feel there must be an archival project of this type out there, but my Google-fu has failed me on this one.

By: BackwardsCity

BackwardsCity — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 19:48:31 -0800

There's vague talk of putting an "ark" of sorts on the moon. Boing Boing had a ton of links about it this summer.

By: alexei

alexei — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 19:52:03 -0800

Pardon the tangent, but I always liked the iconoclastic treatment of the subject in Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa (spoilers).

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 19:52:22 -0800

The Rosetta Project:

"The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to develop a contemporary version of the historic Rosetta Stone. In this updated iteration, our goal is a meaningful survey and near permanent archive of 1,000 languages. Our intention is to create a unique platform for comparative linguistic research and education as well as a functional linguistic tool that might help in the recovery or revitalization of lost languages in unknown futures."

Here's an article about the project from Wired.

By: Phire

Phire — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 19:57:12 -0800

Not a current plan, but one I found intriguing: Library on the moon.

"Hollow lava tubes on the Moon could be used as a giant digital library...In addition to being able to relay information to Earth like geosynchronous satellites, a lunar-based system could also process and store information..."

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:13:37 -0800

Similar in spirit: Norway is building an arctic vault to store samples of the world's crop seeds, against the possibility of massive disease or infestations etc killing off crops. Here's a New Scientist article about this.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:34:09 -0800

Two wikipedia pages that offer jumping-off places:
Universal library
List of digital library and archive projects

A link to an article about the Rosetta Disk project from 2000; I'm not sure how things have changed in the meantime. Some interesting discussion of what to make the disk out of, for example.

By: fogster

fogster — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 21:13:49 -0800

No one's mentioned Project Gutenberg yet?

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 04:05:14 -0800

The complete works of L. Ron Hubbard are being engraved on stainless steel plates and stored in an underground bunker by the church of Scientology (WP).

By: DenOfSizer

DenOfSizer — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 10:10:22 -0800

Do landfills count?