Earth is Getting a ‘Black Box’ to Tell Future Civilisations How Humanity Ended
The project, dubbed Earth's Black Box, is a massive steel monolith that will be built in a remote Tasmanian area, reported ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
If or when human civilisation crumbles, a gigantic and unbreakable box will be the only thing that will remain. The box will store scientific data and provide future civilisations with information on how humanity collapsed. The project, dubbed Earth’s Black Box, is a massive steel monolith that will be built in a remote Tasmanian area, reported ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). It is similar to the black boxes that are designed to investigate airline disasters and provide crucial information about what led to the unfortunate event. The Earth Box is expected to be loaded with solar-powered hard drives that will document and preserve a stream of real-time scientific updates and analysis on the world’s most pressing problems.
Climate change, species extinction, environmental pollution, and health repercussions will all be documented in the monolithic structure, so that if a future civilisation discovers the archive, they will be able to piece together what happened on Earth. Researchers from the University of Tasmania, marketing firm Clemenger BBDO, and creative firm The Glue Society have collaborated on the project. Apart from recording climate data such as CO2 levels in the atmosphere, marine temperatures, and energy use, the box will also be designed to collect contextual data such as news headlines and social media posts.
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Jim Curtis, the executive creative director at Clemenger BBDO, told ABC, “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."
However, there are a few apprehensions considering that the device will only be able to store data for the next 30 to 50 years. The team is already looking into ways to increase capacity and longer-term solutions like inscribing data into steel plates. In addition, the crew must assist future civilisations in gaining access to the information contained in the monolith that they will find in the middle of nowhere.
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