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Knowledge ark
Collection of knowledge in case of civilisational collapse

A knowledge ark, also called a doomsday ark or vault, is a repository designed to preserve crucial knowledge for future generations, especially if all other sources are lost. It safeguards access to vital information despite existential risks or extinction-level events, and can take many forms such as a library, computer database, or visual records. To be effective, the ark must withstand natural and man-made disasters and include knowledge essential for human survival and prosperity. Additionally, knowledge arks may store genetic material in DNA banks, preserving the genomes of species or personal genetic codes for future retrieval and study.

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Examples

An example of a DNA bank is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a seedbank which is intended to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds (such as important crops) in case of their extinction.3

The Memory of Mankind project involves engraving human knowledge on clay tablets and storing it in a salt mine.4 The engravings are microscopic.5

A Lunar ark has been proposed which would store and transmit valuable information to receiver stations on Earth. The success of this would also depend on the availability of compatible receiver equipment on Earth, and adequate knowledge of that equipment's operation.67

The Arch Mission Foundation sent the Lunar Library, a 30 million page knowledge ark designed to survive for millions or billions of years in space, to the moon on the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft in 2019.8 The spacecraft experienced a crash landing. However, the library likely survived intact.9

The Phoenix Mars lander, which landed on surface of Mars in 2008, included the "Visions of Mars" DVD, a digital library about Mars designed to last for hundreds or thousands of years.1011

On February 22, 2024, the Arch Mission successfully landed a Lunar Library on the Moon, on the Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission's Odysseus lander.12

  • In 2020 science fiction book Ready Player Two, a spaceship named Vonnegut was launched to Proxima Centauri which also functions as a knowledge ark since it contains backups of humanity’s cultural materials, such as a standalone copy of the virtual universe OASIS which they call ARC@DIA.

See also

References

  1. Parlangeli, Luca. "Transitional Territories". Delft University of Technology. Retrieved 16 June 2024. https://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid:633251e8-3e63-407a-b31d-995c00e53308/datastream/OBJ4/download ↩

  2. "How the Doomsday Ark Works". HowStuffWorks. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 16 June 2024. https://science.howstuffworks.com/doomsday-ark.htm ↩

  3. "Norway's seed vault protecting Africa's food supply – DW – 11/13/2023". dw.com. Retrieved 16 June 2024. https://www.dw.com/en/norways-seed-vault-protecting-africas-food-supply/a-67367154 ↩

  4. Kemeny, Richard (January 9, 2017). "All of Human Knowledge Buried in a Salt Mine". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 28, 2021. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/01/human-knowledge-salt-mine/512552/ ↩

  5. Gray, Richard (October 18, 2016). "The world's knowledge is being buried in a salt mine". BBC News. Retrieved September 28, 2021. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20161018-the-worlds-knowledge-is-being-buried-in-a-salt-mine ↩

  6. Chittenden, Maurice (16 June 2024). "Mankind's secrets kept in lunar ark". The Times. Retrieved 16 June 2024. https://www.thetimes.com/article/mankinds-secrets-kept-in-lunar-ark-tvmg6ws05ds ↩

  7. "Lunar Ark". asteroid.arizona.edu. Retrieved 16 June 2024. https://asteroid.arizona.edu/lunarark.html ↩

  8. Powell, Corey S. (February 28, 2019). "A 30-million page library is heading to the moon to help preserve human civilization". NBC News. Retrieved September 28, 2021. https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/30-million-page-library-heading-moon-help-preserve-human-civilization-ncna977786 ↩

  9. Oberhaus, Daniel (August 5, 2019). "A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon". Wired. Retrieved September 28, 2021. https://www.wired.com/story/a-crashed-israeli-lunar-lander-spilled-tardigrades-on-the-moon/ ↩

  10. Kaplan, Mat (May 27, 2008). "Phoenix Takes Image of First Library on Mars". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 2018-03-07. http://www.planetary.org/press-room/releases/2008/0527_Phoenix_Takes_Image_of_First_Library_on.html ↩

  11. "'Lunar Ark' Proposed in Case of Deadly Impact on Earth". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 2018-02-27. Retrieved 2018-03-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20180227174409/https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070814-lunar-ark.html ↩

  12. updated, Andrew Jones last (2024-02-22). "Here's what just landed on the moon aboard Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander". Space.com. Retrieved 2024-02-23. https://www.space.com/intuitive-machines-odysseus-moon-lander-payloads ↩