Throughout history, civilizations and societies have fallen into ruin, and often time and tide have obliterated nearly all traces. The lore, literature, music, philosophy and art of these bygone peoples may be completely erased so that all archaeologists can find are tantalizing scraps such as building foundations and shards of pottery, but nothing providing any clues to how and what the vanished people spoke or sang or thought. A great deal of culture and learning has vanished forever when libraries and other depositories of human achievement fell victim to disaster, war or ignorance.
Anybody who has made more than a cursory study of history is aware that, many times in the past, valuable knowledge has been lost so later generations had to rediscover it. The Library of Alexandria is the poster child for the irretrievable loss of accumulated literature and science. It is not the only library that has been lost forever – the Grand Library of Baghdad and the Royal Library of Antioch are just two more of the many that have been demolished and their books and scrolls destroyed, thus denying their contents to posterity.
What if some calamity wiped out our present civilization, and much of our accumulated learning and art vanished? What if descendants of the survivors knew nothing of Stephen Hawking, Giuseppi Verdi, or the Bronte Sisters? What if millennia of history and scientific discoveries were forgotten? If the generations that come after a global catastrophe seek to rebuild, it would be a shame if they had to start from scratch.
Our current civilization may seem robust, but it is actually vulnerable to many threats, both natural and man-made. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated just how fragile our society actually is, and already the effects of climate change are causing widespread destruction and disruptions. Other calamities that could easily end civilization as we know it include an asteroid or comet hitting the planet, a war involving nuclear weapons, a supervolcano eruption, and a coronal mass ejection that scores a bullseye on Earth.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists recently moved the hands of the “Doomsday Clock” to 100 seconds to midnight because, according to them, world leaders have failed to address the largest threats to humanity. This is the closest the Doomsday Clock has ever been to midnight – even closer than it was at the height of the Cold War. Granted, this does not mean we are doomed; however, we should still be concerned about the possibility of an apocalyptic disaster.
The World One program, a computer simulation created in 1973, predicted the end of civilization in 2040; some of its predictions have been frighteningly spot-on. Though we are making progress in a variety of fields, we are not doing enough to curb climate change, and it may be too late to avoid the worst effects. Changing weather patterns will lead to droughts, causing crop failures and famine. Nations will make war over increasingly scarce resources. Millions of refugees will flee violence and hunger, possibly bringing emerging diseases with them and inadvertently causing deadly pandemics.
Because modern civilization faces many threats, we need some way to preserve our accumulated artistic and scientific achievements. Even if our civilization survives, even if we manage to slog through the worst effects of climate change and confrontations between world leaders, it is better to have that backup available just for the peace of mind.
So, why should we create preserves for our achievements? Imagine if the generations that came after some great calamity knew nothing of Shakespeare or Star Trek. Imagine if they had to rediscover nearly all of what we know today about medicine, engineering, mathematics, astronomy, geology and the like. Imagine if thousands of years worth of history was forgotten, and thus all the important lessons of the past.
If you question the necessity of squirreling away our accumulated knowledge, think of all the precautions you take in your personal life, such as locking your front door and wearing a seat belt. Do you back up the data on your computer, whether on a special device or in the Cloud using a service such as Carbonite® or SugarSync®? Do you keep important documents – or copies of them – such as the deed to your house, the title to your car, your birth certificate, and the like in a safe deposit box? If so, you have a mini-ark for your personal matters. A Knowledge Ark is essentially a safe deposit box for civilization.
A lot of our important knowledge today is on paper – or worse, in electronic form, which is even more vulnerable and ephemeral. Too many people disdain reference books because they can whip out their phones and get the answers they need. Much of humanity’s collective achievement is stored on such volatile media. Computers, tablets and mobile phones are good only as long as the electricity is on or the batteries last. Take away the power, and a great deal could be lost forever.
This is why we need to construct Knowledge Arks using low-tech materials. A disaster that is sufficiently devastating will deprive us of nearly all, if not all, information that is in electronic format. We need hardcopy backups so that we can preserve and eventually recover our accumulated learning and culture. There will be little, if any, power for fancy equipment in the post-apocalyptic world because bare survival will consume the lion’s share of resources as bands of people struggle to stay alive and fight off marauders. Thus, any materials will need to be rugged enough to last until the societies that arise after the doo-doo hits the fan can afford to divert resources from just plain staying alive towards rebuilding and restoration.
Don’t laugh at the idea of civilization collapsing. History is filled with examples of societies and groups that found themselves facing unexpected circumstances. Such a calamity may never happen, but it never hurts to prepare. Better to have the supplies for riding out a disaster – and preserving civilization – but never need them, than to need those supplies but not have them.
