Observe our Ecological Interactions. Forecast Deep-Time Legacies. Archive the Essentials.
TROUBLESHOOTING TOMORROW
CONSOLIDATING FUTURE STUDIES
What should be archived for posterity generations? Is there an arena of research, or practical experimentation, you believe possesses a lingering impact for the future of life on Earth? Are you involved in existential risk profiling, techno-social integration studies, or have you identified a specific category of ‘essential information’ which should ideally be committed to multigeneration memory for the benefit of informing those who will one day inherit these legacies? What do you think posterity ‘needs to know’, or should we signpost particular material remnants under a cautionary ‘do not go’ classification?
Following on from the success of the initial Beyond the Earth study group, we are once again looking to operate a digital forum to enable international researchers and scholars to come together and deliberate over subjects that are essential for long-term communication strategies, or suggest themes and proposed fields which should rightly feature in our ‘After the Horizon’ initiative. This platform intends to again promote and nurture speculative theories with a healthy dose of science fiction, while enabling a plethora of philosophical landscapes and other multi-disciplinary perspectives to naturally arise when contemplating what information we should morally and ethically bequeath to the great silent majority yet to be born.
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If you would like to participate, collaborate, or simply wish to contribute your own perspectives on what should feature in this archival debate, please register your interest, or submit your thoughts for inclusion in the preliminary table below. We encourage you to explore the shortlist, share your opinions to populate this directory, and perhaps to also identify future avenues we may one day investigate for the betterment of planetary custodianship and generational resiliency. Where possible, we will interlink some of these proposed fields with the exciting projects now being pursued by third-parties as an informal directory for future-focused entities. For the moment, this listing intends to simply display these fields while the foundation pursues the remaining project workloads.
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Documenting ‘crucial mutations’ found ‘in the wild’ within human and animal microbial pathogens (changes in; bacteria, fungi, protozoa, chromista, archaea, and viruses, including transmissible misfolded protein mutations ‘prions’).
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A Pathogen Library
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Added 16 June 2024
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Tracking the emergence of controversial or disruptive technological domains with the potential to induce significant harm. Examples include;
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Nanotechnology/ molecular machines/ ‘grey goo ecophagy’
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Transhumanist enhancement technologies
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Gain-of-function research
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‘Neo-Genesis’ (i.e., synthetic life or engineered “mirror bacteria”).
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Tomorrow's Technologies
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Added 16 June 2024
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Caching our observational data for Redshifting Astronomical objects presently accelerating away from the Sol System due to the processes of cosmic inflation.
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The Redshift Almanac
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Added 16 June 2024
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Related Initiatives:
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Establishing a diary for the reception, debates, and decisions made by SETI researchers during future ‘First Contact’ events as an account for future study.
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A Cosmic Exchange
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Added 16 June 2024
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A record of our changing relationships with brownfields and ‘sacrifice zones’ we choose to re-occupy, to inform those who will, one day, live upon these lands.
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Fifthy Shades of Brown
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Added 19 June 2024
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Chronicling the development of microbial antibiotic resistance to treatments and vaccines, along with general impacts on human
immunological responses.
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Adapt and Re-Adaption
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Added 19 June 2024
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Inscribing genome sequences for extinct and endangered species (it is unclear how useful these complex lists of figures may be should ‘wet’ samples perish) for the potential applications of this ‘biobanking’.
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Dry-storing the ‘Wet Zoo’
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Added 27 June 2024
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Cultural achievements and literacy databases (several of our partnering organisations are already pursuing these ‘goodwill’ repositories to ‘preserve knowledge, our cultural heritage, and milestones in human history – forever’).
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A Tomb for our History
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Added 04 July 2024
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Related Initiatives:
Felicity | History of Humanity in Granite Arch Mission Foundation | The Billion Year Archive​
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Documenting the locations for terrestrial time capsules and similar hardened archival sites.
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A Library of Forgotten Voices
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Added 07 July 2024
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Related Initiatives:
Oglethorpe International Time Capsule Society Library NotForgotten Digital Preservation Trust​
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Establishing a hardened record of contemporary climate data alongside humanities’ reactions to these widespread changes.
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The Definitive Climate Record
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Added 13 September 2024
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Documenting the emerging steps – and disruptions from – nascent Artificial Intelligence.
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Escaping the Sandbox
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Added 16 September 2024
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Related Initiatives:
Future of Life Institute | Artificial Intelligence AI Incident Database OECD AI Incidents Monitor​
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Creating a hardened record of current events and printed news media gathered from across the globe, in addition to a permanent repository for the chapters of history at risk of alteration or erasure.
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Chronicling our Unfolding Age
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Added 30 September 2024
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Compiling an archive of world languages to safeguard against language loss, and aid in preserving linguistic diversity.
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Comparative Language Library
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Added 11 November 2024
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Related Initiatives:
​Long Now Foundation | Rosetta Project Long Now Foundation | Panlex Swadesh Corpus​
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Inscribing our knowledge of the diverse branches on the tree of life, documenting evolutionary changes, biota relationships, and broken branches from our age.
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The Modern Biota Tree
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Added 12 November 2024
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Creating a secure, complementary backup (as inscribed genome sequences) for global seed vault initiatives to preserve the world's crop diversity.
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Global Seed [Genome] Vault
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Added 12 November 2024
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Recording datasets from experiments in high energy physics, sky surveys and other large-scale investments in scientific instrumentation/ international programmes – preserved to reduce the need to repeat costly experiments.
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Extreme Experiments
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Added 17 November 2024
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Creating a sophisticated survey of human interactions across Antarctica – the seventh continent, which possesses no indigenous human population.
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Our Marks Upon the Snow
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Added 17 November 2024
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Documenting the locations of sea mining operations, along with their stated missions, to record the sweeping ecological impacts across these regions of ocean.
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An Atlas of Sea Mining
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Added 21 November 2024
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Preserving our evolving comprehension of rare human medical conditions – genetic disorders and other conditions with little available literature.
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Database of Rare Medical Conditions
Added 28 November 2024
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Conserving an intricate record of seismic and volcanic activity from known Supervolcano sites located across the globe with multi-millennial impacts, in addition to an active registry of lower risk zones with the potential to cause a comparable cascading global catastrophe. This area may eventually be integrated into our ‘Foreboding Lands’ registry.
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Where There's Smoke
Added 29 November 2024
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Related Initiatives:
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Documenting research undertaken in subterranean cave networks containing extremely isolated ecosystems,in addition to isolated biomes on the deep seafloor, for the benefit of future research into these near-unreachable regions of Earth.
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The Hidden World
Added 01 December 2024
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Related Initiatives:
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Chronicling the dispersion of ‘neobiota’ or invasive species as habitats intersect and collide over time due to many climatic, anthropogenic, or migratory vectors. This component would integrate with ‘The Modern Biota Tree’ identified above.
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When Branches Collide
Added 04 December 2024
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Related Initiatives:
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Preserving a referential repository of foundational multilateral agreements, regulations, and international treaties developed by the United Nations and other institutes for the betterment of balancing human and environmental rights.
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A Brief Guide to International Accords
Added 13 December 2024
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Related Initiatives:
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Recording the multidisciplinary insights gleaned from existential risk (X-Risk) studies, in addition to the complementary musings from science fiction literature, to inspire future modes of thinking.
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On the Balancing of Many, Many Probabilities
Added 26 December 2024
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Related Initiatives:
​The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential Laetus in Praesens TASAT - There's A Story About That!​​​
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Ensuring the preservation of local traditions, cultural memories, allegorical stories, and lore of island nations as they slowly slip beneath the rising tides. See the virtual museum of Tuvalu Metaverse plan as an example.
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A Museum of Lost Nations
Added 27 December 2024
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Documenting the developmental history of our measurement systems, alongside equitable contemporary and antiquated units, to ensure represented commonplace quantities, weights, measures and other properties or relationships in nature are preserved for backwards conversion by posterity.
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A Measure for Immortality
Added 02 January 2025
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Related Initiatives:
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Ensuring the preservation of a common referential timeframe and relevant chronometric unit(s) as a reliable record for dating particular historic and world events over the passage of millennia.
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Keeping Good Time
Added 18 January 2025
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Enabling long-term thinking through competitive predictions – content which may be useful for promoting intrigue in future societies.
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Raising the Stakes
Added 01 February 2025
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Tracking patterns in today’s food supply disruptions – building a long-term database to ensure logistical problems can be identified which may impact the resilience of these networks at crisis points, while also enabling relevant authorities to recognise and learn lessons from emerging deficiencies in crucial supply chains.
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The Bread Baskets of Tomorrow
Added 27 February 2025
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Cataloguing the range of identified information hazards or ‘infohazards’ and the risks posed by disseminating this knowledge in the public domain, while also preserving a snapshot of relevant discussions about the known dilemmas of distributing this potentially harmful knowledge. Rather than archiving this information (a potential proliferation issue), the purpose of such a summary of ‘sensitive knowledge’ would be to simply ensure this material will not be blindly overlooked or neglected in future academic discourse and governmental decision making.
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Forging Pandora's Box
Added 06 March 2025
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