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| Frosty |
 Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 4:55 pm Post subject: Time capsules ... |
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Forum Freshman
Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 5
Location: Sydney, Australia
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The scenario...
The year is 2006 and astronomers have discovered that there is a high probability that an asteroid 20km across will strike the earth in 30 years time .... wiping out most of the plant and animal life and, in the very least devastating mankind
Our world leaders have secretly met and decided on a three-pronged attack.
(1) To launch nuclear warheads in the hope it will break the meteor up into smaller pieces. The basis being that it is better to be hit by gravel as opposed to one big rock.
(2) To evenly distribute our scientific, political and religious minds and resources around the globe.
(3) In the event that the worst does happen to build three Time Capsules, Noah’s Ark's containing as much of the Earths history and mans achievements and knowledge as is possible.
You have been approached by "the committee" to secretly build these arks and to act as the librarian (the Noah) responsible for filling them. Many countries will secretly contribute to this project so you will have a "black ops" style of budget.
You have limitations placed on you:-
1. You are limited to the technology we posses in the year 2006.
2. The Arks must be placed in different locations.
3. Each Ark shall be roughly the size of a large house
4. Each Ark may be made of different materials depending on the environment it is placed.
5 The contents of the Arks will not contain living animals, plants or humans but may contain along with other mediums, tissue samples and seeds.
6. Each of the Arks may be designed to cater for different types of technologies opening it.
7. You must take into consideration that it will be unlikely for there to be any "Rosetta Stones" available when one day the capsules are opened. Consider the capsules may not be opened for millions of years.
.... You have less than 30 years ....you may begin!!
The questions I put to you are.
1. Where would you put each of the Arks ?
2. What would you build each Ark out of ?
3. What would you put in each of the Arks and why ?
4. What mediums would you use to convey our technology to the people opening the Arks?
Steve  |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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Aw shucks, Can't I put them on the moon where they would survive rather than on earth where they will not?
However if I were restricted to putting them on earth I'd fill them with giant springs and sponges and put them at the predicted impact site.
Last edited by Guest on Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| william |
| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Ph.D.
Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 911
Location: USA
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Sounds like a real good question Steve! I'll have to give it some thought....
Cheers,
william
P.S. Welcome to the forum.
_________________
"... the polhode rolls without slipping on the herpolhode lying in the invariable plane."
~Footnote in Goldstein's Mechanics, 3rd ed. p. 202
About my avatar: This is a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation of the merger of two galaxies. The code was written by Volker Springel of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics at Garching Germany. This simulation uses 20,000 disk particles (stars) and 40,000 halo particles (dark matter) per galaxy. The three views are, from left to right, the x-y plane, x-z plane, and y-z plane. |
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| Frosty |
| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 5
Location: Sydney, Australia
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| Megabrain wrote: |
Aw shucks, Can't I put them on the moon where they would survive rather than on earth where they will not?
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Your on the right track !!, You can send them anywhere in the universe ... as long as you use our current technology. Thats why I suggested three capsules.
One thing you would have to remember though is that while a technology that evolved on earth may be able to open and understand the contents of one of the capsules, they may not be advanced enough to get to the moon. So I am thinking that one of the capsules would have to take it's chances here on earth. |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:39 pm Post subject: |
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I wouldn't leave one on earth at all, I might put one in a decaying earth orbit that would end in a million years, it would of course be protected from re-entry but have to take it's chances where it landed....
I don't think any none human species could evolve in 1 million years, IF 5Bn humans were wiped out then it's certain all creatures close to developing intelligence (apes, chimps, Liverpudlians, Swiss etc) would also likely become extinct. So my aim would be the moon where they might survive till the sun snuff it. And hope ET finds Earth but with all the shit we'll leave behind goes to the moon instead... |
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| william |
| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:53 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Ph.D.
Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 911
Location: USA
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| Megabrain wrote: |
I wouldn't leave one on earth at all, I might put one in a decaying earth orbit that would end in a million years, it would of course be protected from re-entry but have to take it's chances where it landed....
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And that re-entry might just get some future monkey's attention. Brilliant!
After all, if we buried it somewhere the chances of the future monkey finding it might be slim.
cheers
_________________
"... the polhode rolls without slipping on the herpolhode lying in the invariable plane."
~Footnote in Goldstein's Mechanics, 3rd ed. p. 202
About my avatar: This is a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation of the merger of two galaxies. The code was written by Volker Springel of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics at Garching Germany. This simulation uses 20,000 disk particles (stars) and 40,000 halo particles (dark matter) per galaxy. The three views are, from left to right, the x-y plane, x-z plane, and y-z plane. |
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| leohopkins |
| Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Professor
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
Posts: 1162
Location: Croydon, England
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First of all id place the arks close together.
Secondly rather than burying them id build them out of stone and make a kind of 3 dimensional triangular structure out of them.
Thirdly inside id get graffiti artists to scrawl out on the walls in their best handwriting whatever they wanted to.
****************************************************
Better still, Id send an ark out to the moon on a path known as "free return trajectory" only it'd be a slow return. After the meteorite's impact, the ark would cruise through the earths atmos and land safely somewhere on the earth.
_________________
The hand of time rested on the half-hour mark, and all along that old front line of the English there came a whistling and a crying. The men of the first wave climbed up the parapets, in tumult, darkness, and the presence of death, and having done with all pleasant things, advanced across No Man's Land to begin the Battle of the Somme. - Poet John Masefield.
www.leohopkins.com |
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| Nevyn |
| Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Posts: 827
Location: UK
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i'd rather not be squashed by the giant asteroid/meteor in the first place but here goes, i'd build it below the inside the earths crust scince any asteriod is gonna put a lot of crap into the atmostspear and it might be corrosive, and i'd have a clearly marked opening on the surface. I'd fill it with art, supercomputers and stuff like that.
I don't see the point in building the arc, i'm sure a better way of combatting it would be to spend the money on building shelters
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Come see some of my art work at http://nevyn-pendragon.deviantart.com/ |
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| StarMountainKid |
| Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:52 am Post subject: |
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Location: USA
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I'm not awake enough right now to think about what I'd put in the Arks, but I'd build them as stupendous, strange looking structures with doors that could only be opened with some clever (but not too clever) technology. That way they'd be noticable and their contents could not be destroyed by some future, ignorant barbarian tribe.
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"Where are you going?" "I go where it is changeless." "How can you go where it is changeless?" "My going is no change."
www.geocities.com/zarkorzerak/index.html |
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