In my world, Information Technology, we go to great lengths to protect our valuble data against catastrophe, including sending copies of information to off-site storage facilities. There are several ongoing projects to preserve seeds and DNA samples to help repopulate Earth in the event of catastrophe, but unlike our computer systems, these "backups" are not stored off-site. That's a problem if you have a planet-wide incident.
So, there is a very serious group who are proposing to store DNA samples of all life on Earth, along with a compendium of all human knowledge, as an off-site backup, on the moon. I think this group, the Alliance to Rescue Civilization, makes a lot of sense. Maybe the international community will see the wisdom of it too.
Life After Earth: Imagining Survival Beyond This Terra Firma - New York Times: "The concept is not new, but there is some fresh momentum. Mr. Burrows’s new book, “The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth,” is due out this month. And the physicist Stephen W. Hawking, who is not part of the group, began arguing this summer that human survival depends on leaving Earth.
The mission of the Alliance to Rescue Civilization has also attracted the support of Col. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, who now devotes much of his time to the idea of Martian colonization.
“It takes a big reason to go to the Moon, because, frankly, it’s a lousy place to be,” Colonel Aldrin said in a telephone interview. “But this is exactly the kind of planning as a human race we need to secure our future.
“But the A.R.C. idea isn’t ahead of its time because it’s needed right now. It’s a reasonable thing to do with our space technology, sending valuable stuff to a reliable off-site location. NASA is certainly not bending backwards to do it. It’s the private people like A.R.C.”"
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