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Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by Cthulhu_ on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @07:54AM (#32563479)
There's a few projects like that already happening, like Github's code repository on Svalbard.

That said, I think one big reason why the artifacts mentioned - Sumerians, Mayans, Egyptians, or even Vesuvius - were preserved was because they were lost; buried in the desert, overgrown in dense jungles, buried under volcanic rock and ash, etc.

For something to stand the test of time, it has to be lost. Al-Quaeda and ISIS have destroyed visible historic monuments and documents, for example, and some people in the US are advocating for the removal and burning of certain books as well.

So yeah, underground caves and hidden monuments would probably be best, although the collapse of society may take care of that as well.

Another option: Time capsules of data sent out into space in containers that can survive re-entry in thousands of years. Ideally with a lot of flashy light effects and a persistent smoke trail on re-entry.

Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by GoldenRacer on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @09:41AM (#32564791)
The space container idea could make for a really interesting book plot. It starts in modern day where they send the capsule up. Then skips forward several hundred years to society collapsing. Then skip forward a few hundred more to see how the myth of knowledge falling from the sky is being passed down. Then it keeps skipping ahead to see how the myth evolves. By the end you just have some super cryptic prophecy like "god will descend from the heavens to bring about heaven on earth" and then it actually happens.
Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by chihuahua on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @10:15AM (#32565234)
They open the capsule, and find that it contains nothing but a complete transcript of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial.
Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by jhbadger on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @12:20PM (#32567204)
That's a joke, but real time capsules often aren't as interesting as they could be because the makers of them put things that they think are important (like a portrait of Teddy Roosevelt if he was President of the US at the time) rather than details of what their daily lives were like which they didn't think of including.
Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by zyx321 on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @12:05PM (#32566981)
You say that as a joke, but it would say a lot about contemporary American culture.

Just think about the gender roles on display, a women attacks her husband and gloats that society will side with her. Not to mention the meta-layer, the celebrity worship that would compel someone to preserve this particular document of all things.

Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by hrayn3 on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @09:21PM (#32573899)
Highly recommend reading A Canticle for Leibowitz - it's a masterpiece that deals with exactly this over (can't exactly remember) 2 thousand years
Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by GoldenRacer on Friday August 26, 2022 @12:44PM (#32609772)
Appreciate the recommendation. I'll check it out
Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by microtherion on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @12:45PM (#32567562)
> For something to stand the test of time, it has to be lost.

I agree. Some of the people quoted in the article advocated writing on a monumental scale in order to preserve it, but I don't think that gives particularly good odds of preservation. To add to the examples you cite, the Georgia Guidestones were pretty much a modern experiment in preservation through monumentalism; they painted a monumental target on their backs right away, and ultimately ended up being destroyed this year.

The way to go is probably massive replication in a compact, durable medium.

Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by deeg on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @03:51PM (#32570509)
> Georgia Guidestones

I had never heard about this before. What an odd tale. It's a real-life story of people falling into FUD over something pretty innocuous.

Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by toss1 on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @10:09AM (#32565146)
>>Another option: Time capsules of data sent out into space in containers that can survive re-entry in thousands of years. Ideally with a lot of flashy light effects and a persistent smoke trail on re-entry.

Interesting idea indeed! How to solve the issue that there is a ~70% chance the capsules will re-enter and fall into an ocean area?

Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by ProjectArcturis on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @10:42AM (#32565617)
Perhaps, rather than have it orbit the earth for thousands of years, you could send it on a single, long trip. By having the projectile far away from earth, other satellites, and other gravity sources, you could improve precision and aim for exactly the center of the largest landmass. Or you could intentionally land in the ocean and make it float.
Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by imoverclocked on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @03:22PM (#32570001)
I like the message in a bottle approach! Maybe just flood the Earth with thousands of "bottles" which are shaped/constructed in a way as to not burn up on re-entry, land gently enough in the ocean and then float in salt-water for decades until they are found.
Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by imoverclocked on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @10:19AM (#32565302)
If it’s not a projectile, we have the tech already. Landing on Mars is done autonomously today but making a robot/computer to last more than 1000 years isn’t in our wheelhouse yet.
Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by toss1 on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @12:30PM (#32567343)
>>making a robot/computer to last more than 1000 years isn’t in our wheelhouse yet.

Yes, exactly my point - we can very nicely control landings to within a meter today. How can we make a craft land with any precision say 2-5000 years in the future? It'll require a power source good for 5000 years, a computer that still operates flawlessly for 5000 years, fuel that doesn't evaporate or degrade for 5000 years, and a rocket engine system that will operate properly in 5000 years. Even reduce that spec to 1000 years, or just a 500 years, and I don't see how we get there with today's tech.

Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by cwmoore on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @01:36PM (#32568290)
Make millions of them and some will last outlier timespans. One low-power lightbulb that has been illuminated for over a hundred years:

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-b...

Re:The messages that survived civilisation's collapse by toss1 on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @04:01PM (#32570652)
Yes.

Making millions of them would likely also make all the other problems go away. Wit a million copies, we can forget about the controlled re-entry. While around 700k of them will sink in the oceans, there should still be 300,000 that will fall on land.

As long as the initial orbits, drag profiles, heat absorbtion profiles/patterns, etc. are sufficiently randomized so they all truly re-enter in a random pattern, there should be no need for propellant, engines, power, or controlled re-entry.