Dear Mr. Jens Niemeyer

I have some ideas for repository systems. It should be based on biological principles, as DNA replication, or on the principle of internet that it is stored in multiple locations. The practical realisation of such principle would be to store random parts of knowledge on a part of disk on every sold computer, or still better on a new, non active disk on a computer. When a disaster will happen, some of those computers will survive and they can behave like servers for new internet. Of course, this needs a calculation how much computers we need for such storage. Probably it is not enough space, but after catastrophe some knowledge will remain. Even, every computer drive or flash drive can be filled with such data and after being filled with data the data can be partially deleted. It is not necessary that the sold drives are empty.

Such approach will also enable some browsing on computer, although web will not be accessible.

Other possibility is to built one center on a moon, which will survive even in a case on nuclear war on earth. But this is not so easy feasible than the above model.

The next big question is organization of such knowledge. One help is to make knowledge to the final form from working form. For instance, when the theory of everything (TOE) will be found, it can be (maybe) written on a t-shirt. Thus much knowledge, how to obtain TOE, and many speculations will not be so necessary. The hierarchy and organization of all such knowledge will also be beneficial as new knowledge. On the other side, how to present knowledge is also a not finished story. For instance, I claim that special relativity is not yet presented clearly enough.

These ideas are obtained in one hour and if thorough reflection will not completely delete them, it will be a success.

My essay

Best regards

Janko Kokosar

Jens

As you point out, the acquisition, retention and usage of knowledge is a very important aspect of steering the future. But steering the future involves making the best possible use of the remaining natural resources for the operation and maintenance of the aging infrastructure. For example, what use will the knowledge about how to build, operate and pilot airliners be when they are no longer a viable operation due to lack of fuel and materials.

The useful knowledge will be that which steers the future operation of the aging infrastructure. I propose in my essay that the ELAM movement should sponsor the acquisition of such useful knowledge.

Regards

Denis

Dear Jens,

I agree that a repository is necessary for humanity, and you explain this so eloquently in your well-written essay. (I lost in several occasions data that was very important to me, and now I use regularly source control (even for articles) and make backups. I have a friend who works with financial data, and backs it up on multiple drives, in multiple places, including at a bank.) I liked "A Canticle for Leibowitz", but I also remember reading long time ago a short story in which our civilization ends, and some other civilization (I don't recall if from another planet, or a future civilization on earth) founds only a Mickey Mouse cartoon, which makes them very confuse. Great essay, and good luck with the contest!

Best regards,

Cristi

    Flavio,

    Thank you for your interesting thoughts on this subject! I share your bias (and profession), so it isn't hard for me to agree on all accounts. Was the scientific method discovered independently in China? In any case, methods for (re)discovering information should take high priority in the repository (and perhaps preference over the information itself), as they represent, to a certain extent, a compressed version of the information. Very good point!

    Jens

    Cristi,

    Thank you! I guess most of us have had our "I wish I had backed this up" moments. We also have to store our scientific data (used for publications) for a certain amount of time, which creates the non-trivial question which data is actually relevant for the obtained results...anyway, if you remember the name of the story with the cartoon from the past, please let me know!

    Jens

    Your repository is an excellent idea. The ultimate repository would include a backup for the readers, i.e. the human species.

    5 days later

    Dear Jens,

    I couldn't remember, something I read as a child. If I will remember, I will tell you. Until then, check this out.

    Best regards,

    Cristi

    22 days later

    Hello Jens,

    I posted an article giving some publicity to your piece:

    http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/searle20140705

    Congrats on being a finalist!

    Rick Searle

      Rick,

      Thank you, this is very kind of you. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on these articles.

      Jens

      a month later

      Congratulation for the result in the contest.

      I am thinking that your idea is a beautiful idea for a long term prevervation of human knowledge.

      I am thinking that a similar idea was the Library of Alexandria, that we have lost forever, so that it is not possible to evaluate each future possible disaster.

      The current nearest project is Wikipedia (the different languages could be the Rosetta Stone in the future) but the original documents are not ever linked (the documents are not ever open), but a link between Wikipedia and the Google Book project could collect the whole human knowledge (until the end of the copyright); I see only two problems, the intellectual property of the scientific document (I don't know now if there is an end of the copyright for these documents) and the aging of the electronic support (what is the life of a dvd, a hard drive, a operating system, a reading software?); a solution can be to use different supports, and software, and operating system, so that the different technologies can have different lifetimes, so that can be possible to change the support that it is less reliable after an automatic control with comparison between different supports and technologies.

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