Rosetta Disk Designed For 2,000 Years Archive

Hugh Pickens writes "Kevin Kelly has an interesting post about an archive designed with an estimated lifespan of 2,000 -10,000 years to serve future generations as a modern Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta disk contains analog 'human-readable' scans of scripts, text, and diagrams using nickel deposited on an etched silicon disk and includes 15,000 microetched pages of language documentation in 1,500 different languages, including versions of Genesis 1-3, a universal list of the words common for each language, and pronunciation guides. Produced by the Long Now Foundation, the plan is to replicate the disk promiscuously and distribute them around the world in nondescript locations so at least one will survive their 2,000-year lifespan. 'This is one of the most fascinating objects on earth,' says Oliver Wilke. 'If we found one of these things 2,000 years ago, with all the languages of the time, it would be among our most priceless artifacts. I feel a high responsibility for preserving it for future generations.'"

Comments

Re:Pfff

[Whiteox]

People don't believe in Jesus because of Mary's claim that God made her pregnant. People believe in Jesus because of claims about his miracles & resurrection.

Really? Then how did the Son of God originate on Earth?
Part of His holiness is how He came to the world.
Are you saying that He was born of man and woman?
That's the sin of heresy, and if you would of been born in the times of the Spanish Inquisition...... - you would of at least been excommunicated.

Re:Should have used Harry Potter...

[kesuki]

wait, it requires a 1000X microscope to be read, that's crazy, 250x microscopes were fancy just 100 years ago, do they think optical technology will survive the fall of western civilization (a preventable fall, if only greed wasn't the basis of most modern tech)

and 100 years ago massive coal based industrialization had already happened... there is no was modern high tech optics are going to survive as long as 'humanitarians' keep finding more ways to cause the sick and the poor to be able to have dozens of surviving children, instead of half that number without medical and food assistance... even with the 'death' of cheap oil, there are countless poor people around the world going hungry because food prices have risen globally, and they blame america (and rightfully so, the idea of going 'green' energy came alive in the 70's but we opted for 'cheap imports')

i know the 'humanitarians' say 'think of the children' but really, think of how many 'children' those children will have because an endless sink of money from foundations created by the rich are ensuring more and more people can successfully reproduce!

the earth doesn't need 6.64 billion humans, much less the 9 billion we expect to have in just another 38 years. imagine the kinds of wars that will break out, just look at africa in recent years, too many people, plenty of them willing to get guns and start killing other people over land and wealth and control.. if humanitarians hadn't provided food, medicine, etc most of those people would have died in childhood, and there probably would have been no wars, or at least very short wars, since there would have been a shortage of healthy young men to form large resistance groups or armed uprisings.

my views aren't popular, i know, and you really can't stop foundations 'helping' the poor, other than to organize guerrillas and train them to steal the medicines and foods to support their armies, some of that already happens, and it wasn't done intentionally, but rather as a result of humanitarians making sure there enough people for them to fight over water, land, food, and power, once those 'adorable' children grew up, into gun toting militias.