The Saganites of Hypatia and the Second Renaissance
In the final years of the first global society, a small sect of scientists, historians and philosophers realized that the writing was on the wall - if any of humanity survived the coming storm, there would be little left of all of the scientific, philosophic, artistic and historical progress laid down by millenia of men and woman that gave their entire lives to expose the elegant reality of nature and existence. The loss of knowledge would loom larger than any previous purge in the history of mankind - even the destruction of the great Library of Alexandria and the savage murder of Hypatia.
The only remaining mote of past human knowledge would have been the plaques and discs included on the Pioneer and Voyager probes sent to the stars some three hundred years prior - an insightful move made by the 20th Century Astronomer Carl Sagan. That hardly helped at all, as that information was now irretrievable by the whole of humanity. Taking note from these examples of past blunders and foresight, the network of those concerned dubbed themselves the Saganites of Hypatia and set about a stunning and ambitious plan to save the knowledge and history of mankind from the impending implosion of what was left of society.
With groups working feverishly and in secret across the world, databases of knowledge, power supplies, simple pictograph instructions, books, hard drives, rod upon rod of quantum encoded diamond substrate were disseminated to the seven major world areas thought to be the places from which mankind would re-root itself should it survive: Central America, Persia, Central Africa, Southern Europe, Central South America, Mid-Southern China and India. Using shadow corporations, bogus scientific research, stolen government grants for war research and unheard of embezzlement, the Saganites of Hypatia quickly and quietly built massive vaults in all seven locations, each containing the same information, in three of the most commonly spoken tongues of each region.
Fifty portable nuclear power supplies were included in each vault, maintaining the data, the vacuum seal on the vault and powering the minimal monitoring systems on the interior and exteriors of each vault. The leading engineers of the time calibrated the systems of the vault so precisely that one of the portable power supplies would last up to one hundred years before exhausting its supply, automatically turning on the next generator in the sequence, to give the vault the best chance of being discovered by intelligence.
Also included were supplies and instructions for quickly constructing efficient solar cells, wind and water turbines for generating small amounts of sustainable energy - along with detail pictograph, written and video instructions on how to manufacture each component of the electricity producing machines.
Pressure,
light and sound sensors were placed all around the exteriors of each
vault, tuned to as many of the specific frequencies associate with
human mining activity. Shift in light, sound and movement
associated with tectonic and gravitational shifts were programed to
be completely ignored by the vaults' security systems. Once
enough frequencies are gathered from local activity identified as
human, the vaults' doors will activate special pressure sensors to
determine when enough external debris and pressure has been removed
for the vaults' automatic hydraulic doors, triggering a specific
series of events:
First the doors' outer size panels (one on each side) exposing speakers designed to be heard clearly by the human ear through several meters of tightly packed earth. The vaults' then play a prerecorded message in each of the three common languages three separate times - the message attempted to warn those approaching that the hydraulic doors would soon open on their own and that any human activity should be halted until the opening sequence was complete. Once this message's third circuit was completed and the door started to slowly, silently creep open, another message played on a loop in each language, describing the purpose of the vaults:
First the doors' outer size panels (one on each side) exposing speakers designed to be heard clearly by the human ear through several meters of tightly packed earth. The vaults' then play a prerecorded message in each of the three common languages three separate times - the message attempted to warn those approaching that the hydraulic doors would soon open on their own and that any human activity should be halted until the opening sequence was complete. Once this message's third circuit was completed and the door started to slowly, silently creep open, another message played on a loop in each language, describing the purpose of the vaults:
In
the year 2285, mankind sits on the brink of self imposed
annihilation. Ten thousand years of progress - art, history,
literature, science, knowledge is on
the brink of being lost forever. Knowing this,
The Saganites of
Hypatia placed seven of these vaults across the surface of the Earth
in hopes that they would be found by some distant survivors of
humanity. Myou use this knowledge better than we. May you
learn from our fatal mistakes.
And
so, in the year 2440, a young Indian man digging a well in his modest
village saw the dirt shift around him and then heard the strange
disembodied voice from another time, from another world and the
Second Renaissance had begun.
