Nows and Forevers

Imagine all of the world’s knowledge on one computer disc, just in case.

Well, you don’t have to imagine it. A nonprofit, the Arch Mission Foundation, has actually done it multiple times.

“Our modern civilization, the most technically advanced in human history, has no backup,” the Arch Mission Foundation says on its website. “If a global catastrophe occurred today, most of our collective knowledge would be gone within a decade, and it would take centuries to rebuild.”

It’s actually a good point. There wouldn’t have to be a global catastrophe. Just a big solar flare or EMP could play havoc with our modern world, which is so dependent on computers and AI. Since no one seems to really care about writing stuff done or having books these days, what would happen if all of the computers and the Internet just stopped working?

The Internet of Nothing, as it were.

The foundation dropped the first disc aboard the SpaceX Falcon Heavy mission in 2018, followed by a lunar landing in 2019 and there was supposed to be another lunar landing sometime this year. And then there’s what they call the Global Knowledge Vault, where the disc of human knowledge and books will end up underground in Switzerland.

Sixty million pages worth, apparently.

“And it’s designed to survive a nuclear holocaust,” according to The Sun newspaper.

Not a bad idea, really. There are plans to put one on each continent, just in case. But travel arrangements to each backup location could end up being a pretty big problem if we were all transported back to a time of horses and buggies. Not to mention that if there was a global catastrophe, where are the computers and other devices to read all that information?

This isn’t the first time humans have worried about losing knowledge. There was the burning of the great library at Alexandria. Or the naming of the Dark Ages, from 500 to 1000 AD, which based on what I believe, wasn’t the Dark Ages at all.