Berichten: 33
Taal: English
Miland (Profiel tonen) 29 mei 2009 13:54:38
In particular, I am interested in the question of capsules designed for enabling the faster reconstruction of civilisation following catastrophe.
Let me explain. We have no physical evidence of Atlantis. If such a civilisation existed, and were utterly destroyed, then we would have had to build civilisation from scratch, discovering the use of fire, the wheel, agriculture following seasons, etc.
The question is: what kinds of artefacts would survive even cataclysms and could stimulate civilisation in the future?
I can think of three such artefacts:
(a) Small hard coins and seals with pictures engraved on them that could enable the discoveries I mentioned above (and others) to be re-made, so that civilisation could be kick-started.
(b) Pictures inside caves, ideally carved, simple, and meaningful.
(c) Carved inscriptions on rocks in the desert, away from winds, akin to the Rosetta stone - perhaps in various languages, ancient and modern, and in Esperanto! That could enable languages and cultures to be reconstructed.
One important proviso that would make the task tougher: we would like to minimise the danger from potential villains starting arms races, or at least enable such things to be neutralised.
No doubt you can think up ideas for 'time capsule caches' that are at least as good. So who wants to try, or to preserve civilisation better than the fabled Atlanteans might have managed it?
Rogir (Profiel tonen) 29 mei 2009 14:45:37
andogigi (Profiel tonen) 29 mei 2009 17:38:02
Frankouche (Profiel tonen) 29 mei 2009 20:42:47
The film "Contact" describes something like that with a special logical alphabet (the message of "vegans" to all civilisations).
I wonder if it has not been done. I remember that such a disc exist on pioneer X sonde which leaves the solar system many years ago, and on viking sondes on Mars...
Abii (Profiel tonen) 29 mei 2009 21:03:05
andogigi:This is a really interesting concept. If we are concerned with planning which artifacts are to be found, is it really necessary to worry about their durability? Consider that the dead sea scrolls spent many centuries in a set of clay jars, hidden in a cave...I think we'd want to make the process as painless as possible. If civilization collapses I'm not sure that a "primitive" society would have the time or resources to spend on a half torn leaf with tar smudges on it.
ceigered (Profiel tonen) 30 mei 2009 05:39:50
Like for example I'd put artifacts talking about nuclear science deep in some booby-trapped mayan cave filled with poisonous snakes and carbon monoxide (ignoring the fact that'd kill the snakes).
andogigi (Profiel tonen) 30 mei 2009 11:19:08
I'm not sure that we want to convey such complex thoughts, since any civilization is bound to eventually discover these things anyway. I would assume our goals should be two-fold.
a) We want to teach basic survival skills - food, clothing, shelter, medicine, etc - in order to get the survivors back on the right track as quickly as possible.
b) We want to pass on aspects of human culture as it currently exists on this planet so that this knowledge continues beyond ourselves.
Miland (Profiel tonen) 30 mei 2009 16:05:50
ceigered:do we really want the artifacts etc to be all so easily accessible?..Like for example I'd put artifacts talking about nuclear science deep in some booby-trapped mayan cave ..That suggests the idea that the more advanced the knowledge, the more inaccessible it should be, so that only people who already have sufficiently advanced technology will be able to find it. So the knowledge of how to make fire, the wheel, or seasonal agriculture could be near the surface on coins, inscriptions, pictures or metal plates. The discovery of bronze, iron and steel means weapons (it did in the past), so here we need also means of defense like shields. Such knowledge needs to be further beneath the surface.
russ (Profiel tonen) 30 mei 2009 18:04:23
ceigered:This all makes me ask though - do we really want the artifacts etc to be all so easily accessible? Consider, for example, if the reason the civilisation in question fell due to the processes + information described on the artifacts. That could just end up with the next civilisation falling in the exact same way.Sounds like an excellent idea for a science fiction story!
ceigered (Profiel tonen) 30 mei 2009 18:30:35
@ andogigi - you forgot c) we want to pass on Esperanto, just for the hell of it
@ miland - maybe we should also plant disinformation, e.g. something indicating "if someone kills someone else such and such a terrible event will occur" or something that will encourage more peaceful resolutions to conflicts?
And all this makes me wonder - has this already been "done" before (with the end product being us but we're all too ignorant to care
)?