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You are a stranded time traveler on a mission to retreive 100 Terabytes of important historical information to save the future; How would you get this data intact into 100 years in the future?

So, here's the deal: You've managed to acquire the data, but disaster strikes, and your time machine is destroyed by an enemy time traveler team. This is crucial historical data that you'll have to get into the future to avert the apocalypse. Due to the constraints of the space-time continuum, all time travelers staying outside of their "home" time for longer than 1 year will die, so you have exactly 1 year to prepare. How do you make sure the future discovers the data, while preventing the enemy time traveler faction from stealing the data?

(Remember: don't just chuck it in a hard drive and bury it in a forest somewhere, the data will degrade)

57 comments
  • I set up like a million dead drops, craigslist entries and graffitti telling the other time travellers to come pick me up where I am. As long as one makes it I will get an instant pickup materializing next to me instantly and can carry whatever server rack I'm salvaging inside their DeLorean or TARDIS or whatever. Bonus points, I get to survive. Extra bonus points, let's go to the place the other guys jumped me and bootstrap their asses into the curb.

    I get that the idea is chatting about how to preserve data, but time travel breaks every premise if you think about it for two minutes.

    • What if the enemy time travelers get to you first?

      • There is no first. Time travel! Just keep going back. Hell, screw telling my future friends about coming to pick me up, tell them to tell me where I got jumped so I can avoid it and I don't even have to be here in the first place.

        I will Primer the crap out of this situation if there are time machines. I will Primer the crap out of every situation if you let me have a time machine.

  • 100 years ain't that long tbh. Seal it in a glass jar and put it somewhere cool and dry, like a cave, and it'll be fine.

  • Some type of data crystal/diamond sneak it in to or on to a piece of art or jewelry in a museum somehow or maybe stash it in a statue or graveyard someplace that’ll persist and most likely won’t be changed much if at all for that amount of time. The organization that sent me on this mission surely had a dead drop contingency plan they have time traveling tech. Or I leave a clue carved in stone on the grounds of the one day HQ hoping they get the clue and can swap the data crystal out later. 🤷‍♂️

  • As a time traveler I expect to have knowledge of what readers exists. verbatim makes archival grade DVD, blu-ray, and CD media guaranteed to last 100 years. Put copies on a couple different time capsules and I'm good. However I don't have much confidence that media readers for any of this will exist. Even if I put a reader in the time capsule I'm not confident it will survive - the media will be good but the mechanics probably are lost to corrosion, so this is the most important part.

    Does it really need to be all 100tb? Can I find a small subset that matters? We have history of payrus scrolls with the correct ink that have a proven history of lasting thousands of years when left in a desert garbage dump. You can find the recipe for making both the scrolls and the ink in the bible. Copy by hand, leave in the desert, in a location I know archeologists will dig in 100 years. This is very limited amounts of data that can be saved though.

    If the above doesn't work, non-acid paper when laser printed (not inkjet!) should last plenty long. Again I don't think I can get anywhere near your 100tb, but I remain convinced everything we need can be archived on it.

  • I guess it depends on what sort of data is in this 100 TB data set. And if I have any other tools at my disposal to transcribe the data into new mediums or any time adjacent knowledge for things that would happen in the next year.

    If there was an accurate almanac, lunar calendar of events or current world/local history. Establishing myself as some sort of prophet, messiah or divine messenger should be possible. Once I establish that I can see the future, then I need to make a far flung prediction for my home time that "will be revealed when the time is right".

    Four important rules would needed to make it work.

    • Primarily a foundational tennat not to alter my prophecy. I am the one and only prophet that will ever exist. Of course schisms and reformations will likely occur but so long as the "orthodox" faithful preserve my original writings it should stand the test of time.
    • Secondly, depending on how my death occurs in "exactly one year", I can work that in to the cannon as being recalled to the higher plane. Especially if this time death is flashy! Hopefully something like my body being ripped apart by the time stream. Nice big event that will be remembered.
    • Thirdly, I protect my religious with good ole fashion reliable xenophobia! Whatever tools I can use to identify competing time travelers will be the sign of heretics and evil demons.
    • Finally, that my tomb is to contain both my original manuscripts that are never to be touched or altered. And importantly, exact prophecies that are supposed to be opened prior to various major world events. If I can sprinkle a good one every 20 years or so then the faith should remain strong.
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