[deleted]
Dear Jens,
Having a robust backup of the internet is a good idea, and you explained it so clearly that few people can criticize it.
Have you heard of Open-sourced blueprints for civilization ? They are working on a Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) -- a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.
My own essay describes Three Crucial Technologies that would make both your repository and the GVCS easier to achieve--and much more robust (Your critical comments and score are welcome, BTW).
Another specific technology that makes your proposal easier to implement (in the near term) is the software package Git. It makes copies of the repository *everywhere* with no centralized control. All you need to do is back up your local data in optical (or some other non-EMP-sensitive) format. Printing everything would also be a good idea, but that's a lot of trees... Maybe using a 3D printer with plastic provided by milk jugs (see Distributed Recycling of Waste Polymer into RepRap Feedstock).
Now for the criticisms (sorry). Backing up data is not fun. Choosing what to back up is not fun either. Vitally important if something goes wrong, of course, but that doesn't change the facts that 1) it's boring, and 2) much of it is already being done. So if it's boring, how are you going to fund it? Besides, if we get hit with something that will wipe out the Internet, then we've got really big problems--a billion people will die before a working repository would have any effect.
If everyone just doubled the FEMA/Red Cross recommendations for emergency preparedness, we could save millions of lives in such a disaster, because the *real* repository of knowledge is people. People are the resource that will rebuild civilization.
-Tee