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from the back-to-clay-tablets-are-we? dept.
Martin Kunze wants to gather a snapshot of all of human knowledge onto plates and bury it away in the world's oldest salt mine.
In Hallstatt, Austria, a picturesque village nestled into a lake-peppered region called Salzkammergut, Kunze has spent the past four years engraving images and text onto hand-sized clay squares. A ceramicist by trade, he believes the durability of the materials he plies gives them an as-yet unmatched ability to store information. Ceramic is impervious to water, chemicals, and radiation; it's emboldened by fire. Tablets of Sumerian cuneiform are still around today that date from earlier than 3000 B.C.E.
"The only thing that can threaten this kind of data carrier is a hammer," Kunze says.
[...] The goal of the project, which he calls the Memory of Mankind, is to build up a complete, unbiased picture of modern societies. The sheets will be stored along with the larger tablets in a vault 2 km inside Hallstatt's still-active salt mine. If all goes according to plan, the vault will naturally seal over the next few decades, ready for a curious future generation to open whenever it's deemed necessary.
To Kunze, this peculiar ambition is more than a courtesy to future generations. He believes the age of digital information has lulled people into a false sense that memories are forever preserved. If today's digital archives disappear—or, in Kunze's view, when they do—he wants to make sure there's a real, physical record to mark our era's place in history.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by KritonK on Thursday January 19 2017, @12:10PM
It is quite likely that the time, when it's deemed necessary, will be the time when all human knowledge has been lost, e.g., due to a natural of man-made catastrophe. This knowledge will probably include the location of this buried archive, which will thus be unavailable, when it is most needed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @12:14PM
"The only thing that can threaten this kind of data carrier is a hammer,"
It's hammer time, Saddam!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday January 19 2017, @12:46PM
We should look for the previous archive. Or the repositories of the ancient aliens.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @12:54PM
Bad news. The alien knowledge repositories were tapped out after wi-fi was invented. It's why technological progression hasn't been progressing much lately. We're on our own again.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Thursday January 19 2017, @01:11PM
here you go! [gutenberg.org] (Gilgamesj)
I think the ruins of Nineveh are gone, now that Daesh is done with them. What luck that these clay tablets were dug out before they got to them.
If you read the translation, you go: "WTF was the translator stoned or what?". It shows what an enormous gulf of time and culture there is between Hammurabi's time and our time.
Plus chunks have broken off the tablets over the millenia, of course.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @02:13PM
The previous archive at Alexandria was torched by radical Christianity. :(
(Score: 4, Informative) by gidds on Thursday January 19 2017, @02:27PM
Apparently [todayifoundout.com] not [wikipedia.org].
[sig redacted]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @03:42PM
1st link
We do know that one of the rare historic mathematicians, philosophers, and astronomers who was female, Hypatia, was brutally murdered by a religious mob in Alexandria around this time (in 415 A.D.)
:(
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday January 19 2017, @06:13PM
Way to completely grab one sentence out of context to fuel your preconceived notions.
Legend has it that Theophilius, Patriarch of Alexandria in 391 A.D., began destroying pagan temples in the name of Christianity. The classical “pagan” scrolls contained in the library would have been a point of contention, as was the Serapeum temple attached to the library. If Theophilius destroyed a library in Alexandria, though, it is thought it was probably the “daughter library’ set up by Ptolemy III which contained far fewer scrolls than the historic great library. We do know that one of the rare historic mathematicians, philosophers, and astronomers who was female, Hypatia, was brutally murdered by a religious mob in Alexandria around this time (in 415 A.D.) demonstrating some of the strife between certain scholars and the religious in the region, though many scholars today think her death had more to do with her being caught up in political events than specifically her stance on Christianity.
The story about Caliph Omar is almost certainly made up. In 645 A.D., Omar conquered Egypt and supposedly burned the books in the library because they were not in line with the Koran’s teachings. Again, if Omar did burn a library it was probably the one rebuilt at the site of the original daughter library. Most historians think that this story was probably invented in the 12th century, and as with all stories that emerge long after they were said to take place, it should be considered with a grain of salt.
And from the Wikipedia page:
Ancient and modern sources identify four possible occasions for the partial or complete destruction of the Library of Alexandria: Julius Caesar's fire during his civil war in 48 BC; the attack of Aurelian in AD 270 – 275; the decree of Coptic Pope Theophilus of Alexandria in 391 AD; and the Muslim conquest of Egypt in (or after) AD 642.[2]
So yeah, it was definitely and only the Christians.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @11:55PM
So yeah, it was definitely and only the Christians.
Agreed. I mean, who else would want to burn books? Seems like the Christian thing to do. Remember, God hates Flags, and Words, especially words in books.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday January 20 2017, @03:08AM
Good thing ISIS isn't running around destroying any history they don't like.
Oh wait
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"