Global destruction from climate change will be recorded in Earth's black box

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Extinction isn’t likely from climate change. Even though we’re going to blow right past the supposed targets governments claim to be setting for temperature increase, research is increasingly showing that the very worst possible outcomes are very unlikely. And even if climate change wiped out 99.9% of all humans (resetting us to the population we had circa 4,000 to 5,000 years ago), that’s still plenty to eventually rebuild a civilization. Having some arks for them to potentially learn from (and unfortunately, probably worship) isn’t the worst plan. I think arks that record useful knowledge and artifacts (a la the Moties) would be more valuable, but “hey, don’t make our mistakes” is a fine sentiment.

That said… this is not how you build things to last even 50 years in the event of external devastation. It’s literally “sitting on a granite-strewn plain”! Encase it in some of that local granite. Have machines engrave summaries of the data and results on granite slabs. You don’t rely on fancy electronics somehow surviving unmaintained for generations. If it has to be metal, make it one that doesn’t rust, like stainless steel with a coating of titanium. And geological stability is great, but for god’s sake put the damn thing on top of a hill high enough to not get flooded, in a region likely to (post-warming) be large and fertile enough that some of the surviving humans will actually find it and recognize it as significant even once they’ve forgotten the distant past.

The article admits it’s also about holding current leaders to account, letting them know the future will have records of their failures. That seems to have dominated the design process here, with the other stated goals a clearly lower priority.

It is a great solution. It’s simple, it’s easy…

And it completely misunderstands the problem set that they were trying to solve.

If there is continuous civilization, then this is a wonderful solution that should be used.

The problem is that they are foreseeing the collapse of civilization and the eventual re-discovery of the site by people who are not equipped to determine the hazard on their own, and who potentially have the ability to access the material stored underneath but not the ability to understand WHY THEY SHOULD NOT. :slight_smile:

Having each group replace the sign in their own language is a good option only if there are people living in the place more or less continuously, who can maintain the sign in the current language. (And who understand the dangers of radioactivity and can express that in their language.)

And this, ironically, is the priesthood that the Seboek proposed; Eco is just proposing that we assume future generations will perform the labor “for free” without making it a part of their religion.

Which is massive big boomer vibe, tbh: making a huge mess and expecting future generations to take care of it for you in perpetuality, lol.

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A good point, though Eco was not a boomer of course, but a member of the silent generation. Of course, as you say, the establishment of a priesthood (or the even more outré ideas, such as the establishment of a legend of glowing cats) also require some sort of civilisational continuity.

I’d argue that every solution to the problem has to rely on some sort of survival of our semiotic system and among those that do, Eco’s is the easiest one to implement. At least it makes sure that the last sign built before total civilisational collapse will be culturally and temporally closer to the people repopulating the area than anything we can devise in our time.

ETA:

I should add that all the “decipherments” of ancient scripts and languages I am aware of were realised through analogy with a younger language, be it hieroglyphs, linear B or Mayan script

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I’m pretty sure I’ve read that book.

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Well, d’uh. (Aimed at the writer of the article, not you)

I never saw this as an actual attempt to inform future generations. It’s a commentary and warning for our times. It makes the point that we have fucked up so badly that there are now those that are preparing our planet for its eventual shutdown. But it’s performative. Otherwise they would have put it in a deep bunker.

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