Scientists Are Building a "Black Box" to Record the End of Civilization

[Celerity]

https://futurism.com/the-byte/earth-black-box-civilization



Apocalypse Cam

If — or when — human civilization collapses, what will remain? Maybe parts of some cities. Or the Statue of Liberty, a la “Planet of the Apes.” Overall, though, there might not be a lot of evidence left behind about what humanity accomplished — or what resulted in its downfall. One team of researchers wants to change that. Their solution? A massive, indestructible box that’ll record scientific data to give future civilizations insight on how exactly humanity fell.



The project, dubbed Earth’s Black Box, will be an immense steel monolith installed in a remote location in Tasmania. It’s akin to the black boxes that are designed to survive airplane crashes and provide investigators valuable data on what led to the disaster — except on a planetary scale.

Indestructible Recorder

The project is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Tasmania, marketing agency Clemenger BBDO, and creative agency The Glue Society. The team is designing the box to record climate data such as atmospheric CO2 levels, sea temperatures, and energy consumption levels. It’ll also gather contextual information like news headlines and social media posts. “The idea is if the Earth does crash as a result of climate change, this indestructible recording device will be there for whoever’s left to learn from that,” Jim Curtis, the executive creative director at Clemenger BBDO, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Outlive Humanity

The box itself will be made from three-inch-thick steel and cantilevered off granite. Inside will be a system of Internet-connected storage drives powered by solar panels on the box’s roof. “It’s built to outlive us all,” Jonathan Kneebone, cofounder of the Glue Society, told ABC. “If the worst does happen, just because the power grids go down, this thing will still be there.” The biggest issue for the team now is how to help future civilizations access the information it contains. After all, they’ll just find a mysterious monolith out in the middle of nowhere — and we know how that worked out for us already.

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READ MORE:

Earth is getting a black box to record our climate change actions, and it’s already started listening [Australia Broadcasting Corporation]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-12-06/climate-change-earth-black-box-recorder/100621778

More on doomsday boxes:

Oreo Built a Doomsday Vault to Protect Its Cookies from a Harmless Asteroid

https://futurism.com/the-byte/oreo-built-doomsday-vault-protect-cookies-harmless-asteroid

[Demovictory9]

1. better have some written materials also. like on a metal tablet

[dalton99a]

12. +1. It's silly to assume everyone else can access or make sense of digital info

How many people still use a hard drive from 2000?

We still know how to read Egyptian hieroglyphics

[Retrograde]

18. We forgot how to read hieroglyphics for centuries

and only re-learned in the 1800s. And it's only been in the last couple of decades, IIRC, that we re-learned how to read Mayan writing.

Digital information can be nigh impossible to decipher unless you have some clue as to the format. Many years ago, I once had to extract data from a reel-to-reel computer tape that had accidentally been partially overwritten. The tape header was gone, but I knew what the end-of-record markers looked like, so I was able to painstakingly go over it bit by bit until I got to a recognizable marker. If you don't know what format digital info is in, good luck trying to decipher it - even if you can somehow extract it from the medium!

[Demovictory9]

19. I am thinking a tablet with pictures not just writing

I am thinking a tablet with pictures not just writing

[Buns_of_Fire]

2. I hear "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" playing in the background.

[ColinC]

3. I've thought about this before.

And also wonder how long it would take for it to be deciphered if found. And also wonder if there are any still yet to be found.

[ColinC]

17. On order for this project to have any remote success, we should make

Millions of copies. Or something

[RockRaven]

4. Incredible narcissism to think anyone capable of finding and understanding that information

needs to learn any of that information...

What exactly do these people think any such entities know or don't know, understand or don't understand, that this would be useful or necessary?

This looks like an enormous monument to humans' delusions of self-importance. A species-wide self-own, on top of everything else we've already done.

[Maru Kitteh]

16. I think the point is an aspiration to provide a cautionary tale?

I.e., this is how we effed ourselves?

[kairos12]

5. Just put instruments in any

commercial fruitcake. Indestructible.

[DFW]

6. At the rate we're going

They had better have it done by next September.

[BradAllison]

7. Just DVR CSpan

Between the shit going on the House and Senate floor and the stupid ass callers to Washington Journal......it's all right there.

[Sherman A1]

8. I hope that they hurry

I don’t have any good vibes.

[2naSalit]

9. Better hurry up, we're almost there.

[Autumn]

11. Sounds like a plan. If we won't save the planet might as well document it's destruction.

[calimary]

13. Why did they build it like this?

Doesn’t look like it’s seated securely on the ground. Part of it is hanging off, in the open, without support on the bottom on one side. In some calamity, how can it not tip over and risk damage, or topple over?

What were they thinking?

[Zeitghost]

15. Look at who's behind it

Marketing and creative firms along with researchers. It's a climate marketing project. Which is great, it's just not primarily science driven. Its purpose is to draw attention.

[calimary]

20. Well it certainly will when it tips over.

Or slides off its foundation. Unless of course there’s no longer anybody around to notice by then.

[roamer65]

14. The future generations need a good comedy.

Glad we are providing it.