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I want to write a story where the protagonists hunt down Apocalypse Repertory Caches, A.R.C.s. I had intended that A.R.C.s would be full to the brim with information: farming, medicine, civics, anything needed to give humanity a fighting chance to restart civilization.

My main question is: what would be the optimal way (least amount of degradation) of storing this information for a minimum of 1000 years?

MnIce
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  • Portable or non portable? – Thorne Oct 15 '18 at 06:21
  • Cloud based storage perhaps? – Mr.J Oct 15 '18 at 06:32
  • Non portable. Imagine a 3 story building, but underground. – MnIce Oct 15 '18 at 06:36
  • @MnIce AFAIK, there is no "Physical" storage capable of storing that much of information. We have the Egyptian hieroglyphics, but these writings are most of the time limited to a summary of a person's life. Now imagine the information you require, I highly doubt that 3 story building worth of writing is enough to store the kind of information that you have indicated. – Mr.J Oct 15 '18 at 06:55
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    "full to the brim with information: farming, medicine, civics, anything" "3 story building" You mean something like a typical, large library? – user Oct 15 '18 at 07:03
  • Yes, what do I need to do in order to preserve the data for a minimum of 1000 years, with no intervention. Essentially, once I close the hatch, I have to keep the data secure, safe, and undamaged for as long as possible. Additionally, what can I do to maximize storage space in order to store as much information as possible? – MnIce Oct 15 '18 at 07:16

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The joy of your short time request is that it's entirely possible to use conventional storage methods. In this case rather than having to carve it into granite or similar as per the Rosetta Stone, we can actually write it long form on parchment.

While occasional documents dating back to the 6thC show up in good condition, far older documents have been found in admittedly not great condition but also without any apparent attempt at preservation. In more modern usage, the British Parliamentary archive has vast quantities of scrolls dating back up to 500 years.

All sorts of grand ideas about electronic storage are likely to be considered, but given that most people can't read removable media from only 15 years ago, the chances of anything electronic being readable in a thousand years are pretty much nil. So whether you choose to carve it on granite slabs 3m high or write on parchment scrolls 10m long, you need to write it out longhand.

Separatrix
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    Given that the storage must be full of information, as in everything as stated by the question, I figured out that the Rosetta stone is not plausible because it is "limited" with the amount of information that can be written in it. If every information on the known planet would be written in a stone, it might be as big as the Himalayas, maybe as big as Olympus Mons of Mars, or as deep as the Mariana trench. – Mr.J Oct 15 '18 at 07:46
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    @Mr.J, there's a tradeoff between how long you want the data to last and how much you want to store. Electronic is higher density, granite is longer lasting. Paper lasts a century or two, parchment covers the 1-2 thousand year mark. – Separatrix Oct 15 '18 at 07:51
  • That's what I'm thinking too, if he actually trimmed down the data that he wants to store then there might be a clear answer. – Mr.J Oct 15 '18 at 08:00
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    You might want to read about the Memory Of Mankind project, where they want to do exactly what MnIce asks for. There might be more of these projects. And in the novel Footfall they use technology guides written on stones to build space ships. – Henning M. Oct 15 '18 at 08:02
  • @HenningM. I have to actually see the proof that they can put all of the information needed to start civilization into books, I do think with that magnitude of information, its impossible. – Mr.J Oct 15 '18 at 08:21
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    Regarding the spaceship building mentioned by @HenningM., you might want to see Were the Saturn V construction plans destroyed? and Do we still have all the blueprints to go to the Moon? and Why not build Saturn V's again?, all over on our sister site [space.se]. Also make sure to check out each question's "linked" questions sidebar. – user Oct 15 '18 at 09:24
  • Glass laminate instead of paper, laser etched and filled with molten carbon dust (i.e., laser printer ink), kept in a dark, sealed room with a nitrogen/CO2 atmosphere. Should keep indefinitely, until the seal is broken – nzaman Oct 15 '18 at 13:19
  • @MichaelKjörling Thank you for the good read sir, but it seems that, related to the question. They only stored documents for building the rockets of Saturn V, OP want to store more info than that. – Mr.J Oct 16 '18 at 01:33
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    @Mr.J I was referring more to the points about potentially needing to store more than just engineering documentation in order to actually build something from scratch. – user Oct 16 '18 at 06:34
  • @MichaelKjörling Sorry I had trouble understanding your point sir. – Mr.J Oct 16 '18 at 06:42
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    @Mr.J I likely could have been more explicit. In my defense, I was starting to run out of room in the margin. – user Oct 16 '18 at 06:43
  • So compress the knowledge and store more concepts (like fuild dynamics, basic chemistry or the reaction engine) and less details (like Saturn V 3D printer recipes) and let them have some fun finding the how to for themself. – Henning M. Oct 19 '18 at 11:17