 |
Doomsday Vault Design Now Final
The Svalbard International Seed Vault, aka the Doomsday Vault, is to be built into the mountainside on the island of Spitzbergen, one of the Svalbard islands. The vault is intended to safeguard the world's agricultural diversity from catastrophe - global warming, nuclear war, asteroid strikes - the usual suspects.
(Humans enter the vault once per year)
The facility will burrow deep into the sandstone mountain. Equipped with fashionable dual blast-proof doors, two airlocks and one-meter-thick walls of steel-reinforced concrete, it may provide an attractive haven to the rest of us when the time comes.
(Not unlike certain Egyptian facilities)
The only unfriendly feature is the refrigeration, which is provided by standard units reinforced by the local permafrost, cooling the facility down to a less-than-toasty -20 to -30 degrees Celsius. Some seeds would be preserved for decades, others for thousands of years, depending on the seed type.
Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a drop-off in the number of books and movies that forecast the end of the world. Alas, Babylon, a 1959 novel by Pat Frank set in south Florida, sticks in my mind as a particularly realistic fiction work. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and The Postman all deal with a post-Apocalyptic future.
There were lots of great films too, like On the Beach, Dr. Strangelove, Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, Soylent Green (Charlton Heston was a great Last Man) and many others.
Update 18-Aug-2012: Take a look at the life bank from John Varley's 1977 novel The Ophiuchi Hotline and the genetic ark from Earth, a 1990 novel by David Brin. End update.
Find out more at Crop Trust and at Norway to house seeds via Interactive/Media/Design.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/12/2007)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 2 )
Related News Stories - (" Agriculture ")
Once A Jolly Swagbot Camped By A Billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree.
Rowbot Small Autonomous Farm Robot
'...The tiny red glints of self-guided tractors.' - Larry Niven, 1966.
Vertical Farms? Still Waiting, But Concepts Abound
'Stacked up to the sky...' - Pohl and Kornbluth, 1951.
Ladybird Agricultural Robot Is Solar-Powered
'A robot gardener worked over the same patch of grass again and again...'- Philip K Dick, 1955.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
MULTI Model Of Star Trek Turbolift
Cool prototype video!
A Look Into The Future Of Spacecraft!
Ever wonder how you look when you enter a new part of a spacecraft?
An 'Ethical Black Box' For Robots?
Explored by science fiction authors.
Dadbot Digital Immortality
'A hardwired ROM cassette replicating a dead man's skills...'
Should We Permit Computers To Create Their Own Language?
'Talk Between Robots radio...'
Breakthrough Starshot Sprites Yearn For Alpha Centauri
'Whoever launched it fired a laser cannon...'
Kino Project Roaming Personal Fashion Robots
'Most of the crew have the tiny imp ride on their shoulder...'
Astronaut Exercise Video, Predicted By SF Writers
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses.'
First Crewless Ship? Umm
Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship?
RFID Chipped Employees Of Three Square Market
'About a third of the people in Manhattan have replaced their Freedom Card with a radio-frequency chip...'
JAXA's Int-Ball Drone To Follow Astronauts In Space Station
'I want you to build me some of those.'
Amazon Patents Annoying Robot That Follows You
'The... machine, being homotropic, headed toward them, still bleating...'
Hand Gestures And Body Poses Control Devices
'He waved his hand... the circuit switched...'
Rovable Robots Crawl Across Your Body
'Most of the crew have the tiny imp ride on their shoulder...'
Sansar Social Virtual Reality Platform In 2017?
'And just as a daydreamer forgets his actual surroundings, and sees other realities...'
Cellphone Harvests Power From Ambient Radio Signals And Light
A battery-free phone.
