I often contemplate whether our modern data storage techniques are inscribing us into a forthcoming dark age. Will data archaeologists 3,000 years from now know what to do with these blocks of glass? What is the probability that this storage medium lasts as long as the claim?
What ideas truly endure a span of 100,000 years? If every fragment of human knowledge is worth preserving, shouldn’t we have devised a pertinent storage method at some point within the last 300,000 years? What makes this moment in time so exceptional that we are now endeavoring to preserve its information at a depth and beyond a lifespan any human can fathom?
In spite of these questions, I am in favor of this endeavor. It's exhilarating to think that we possess the technology to secure our data for thousands of years to come. This could well be a pathway for humanity to unify around a project that imparts enduring significance to our collective intellect.
Nonetheless, the challenge of dependable communication with the future remains. How will our efforts be perceived by future groups? How do we ensure that there is an instruction manual that will prevent our data archives from only having the property of a block of glass to future agents?
Should we start a new data storage religion? Religion seems to be a durable source of information survival, but I'm limited to examples within recorded history, which is only a few thousand years. This could be my own eon's bias, but if something's written and it's durable, people in the future will lose their shit when they find it, even if it's a shopping list. idk store the glass in animal skin inscribed with metallic ink in a universal human language that's durable throughout time & bury it under a conspicuous mountain in the Atacama.