like barbarians in rome 1500 years ago will our descendants wonder how the civilization
that created these marvelous ruins collapsed and disappeared leaving only mysterious monuments what
will we as humanity's record keepers leave behind for future civilizations to learn from our demise
which will certainly happen at some point for any number of reasons perhaps a digital rosetta
stone to tell future enquirers from our world or another what exactly went wrong later in 2022
on the west coast of the island of tasmania roughly 150 miles from australia an angular
steel monolith almost three inches thick on a remote granite outcrop will house our
epitaph welcome to fact nominal in today's video we dive into this fascinating effort to not only
record the incredible challenges foreseeable and otherwise that will be faced by our future
selves but perhaps even leave a warning for whoever or whatever finds what we left behind
when an airplane crashes investigators immediately searched for the black box
ironically usually painted bright orange with strips of reflective tape for better visibility
and retrieval but what about when a civilization collapses in ruin what will possible successors
millennia in the future know about how and why humanity went to the edge of the cliff
and then over we're about to have an answer to that question conceptual images show a
striking object with sharp angles that will make it stand out from natural surroundings
and be quite visible to a future observer it's not difficult to imagine a 2001 a space odyssey
or planet of the apes type discovery millennia in the future milling around it
will be our descendants or visitors from elsewhere wondering where this unnatural object came from
measuring 32 by 13 by 10 feet our monument is roughly the size of a city bus and filled with
storage devices to piece together our decline and fall for anyone around who may care in the future
topping the monolith will be solar panels to power the device along with batteries for backup
power when something destroys the solar panels and backup power is gone record keeping stops
but a rather clear picture up to that moment should be preserved what exactly will it record
for starters land and sea temperatures atmospheric carbon levels military spending global average
temperatures ocean acidification data on land use human population species extinction
and energy consumption but wait there's more like a scrapbook for humanity our black box
will digitally preserve our news headlines digital press releases records of important
meetings and conferences and even relevant social media posts and it's already started
the remote locale was chosen for geological and geopolitical stability so theoretically it was
deemed the safest place on earth other sites up for consideration were malta norway and
qatar which begs the question when armageddon is near should we all up and move to tasmania
probably not even being four hours from the closest major city doesn't provide guarantees
against vandalism sabotage or war at this very moment words and actions that may affect our
future are being recorded in a beta version already up and running to go into earth's
black box clemenger bbdo an australian marketing communications company and
the university of tasmania are spearheading the non-commercial effort project developers
estimates storage space will run out in 30 to 50 years and there are plans afoot to
increase capacity with more long-term solutions as technology advances the goal is to preserve
data in an indestructible environment for hundreds and even thousands of years with wi-fi
earth's black box will record every step we take toward catastrophe according to
university of tasmania researchers hundreds of data sets measurements and interactions relating
to the health of our planet will be continuously collected and safely stored for future generations
interestingly it's also recording backwards as well as forwards accumulating data leading up
to our time as a historical trail of clues to our end but why the earth's black box website
says it's all about keeping records and accountability the purpose of the device
is to provide an unbiased account of the events that led to the demise of the planet
how the story ends is completely up to us the working assumption may be viewed
in one of two ways either humanity will see earth's black box as a tool of accountability
and wisely avert whatever future catastrophic event looms for us or those in the future will
use it as a record and warning sort of here's what you should not do developers are even bouncing
around an idea to transmit the vast quantities of data into space possible causes for our doom are
many and various and there's always the chance that our end comes from something we've yet to
consider ask the dinosaurs about cosmic collisions technological advances unfortunately have created
a set of problems our ancestors could not foresee and we've become all too familiar in recent times
with our vulnerability to global pandemics some say the world will end in fire some say in ice
good question first while many who comment on the project like to call the black box indestructible
we all know that it's not any number of cosmic wanderers may come along and reduce it to rubble
and humanity has a proven track record of destructive capabilities our descendants will
need to get through the thick steel walls of the structure and developers believe that anyone with
the technology to accomplish that will also be able to interpret basic symbols that await them
the project does not account for the issue of compatibility in the future to retrieve the
data once it's been discovered and opened and for glaringly obvious reasons there's a wall of
silence today around the exact engineering puzzle that will need to be solved for it to be opened
developers are using multiple formats of encoding including mathematical symbols for inscriptions
on the analog steel plate as a user guide for whoever stumbles across civilization's parting
gift to our heirs jonathan nibon artist and director for the glue society which is involved
in the project says developers imagine who may find it and more importantly find it useful
that's a question we're still working on ourselves it's impossible to anticipate who or what will
find the box but it can be assumed that it will not be of any use unless it's discovered
by someone or something that is intelligent and civilized with the capability of understanding
and interpreting basic symbolism the developers explain further like the rosetta stone we would
look to use multiple formats of encoding we're exploring the possibility of including
an electronic reader that stays within the box and will be activated upon exposure to sunlight
the box would also reactivate if it had entered a long-term dormant state due to a catastrophe and
as the black box developers also like to point out if the worst happens and the power grid goes down
it's built to outlive us all this thing will still be there so what do you think about earth's black
box and what its developers are trying to achieve is it simply a fascinating art and conversation
piece or a potential tool for warning those in the future of the circumstances that led to our end
tell us in the comments and as always thank you for watching fact nominal