Difference between revisions of "Survival of our species/See also"

Revision as of 16:14, 17 February 2007

The Long Now Foundation

This was established in 01996* to encourage long term thinking in a world that lives in a frantic present without much regard for the future. Two major projects are Clock of the Long Now which is clock designed to run for 10,000 years and the Rosetta Project which trying to create a near permanent archive of 1,000 languages.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

The mission of this seed vault is store as many seeds known to us as is possible. This is to prevent important agricultural and wild plants from becoming rare or extinct in the event of a global disaster. It is being built on the remote arctic island of Svarlbard. BBC article 7th Feb 02007*

Doomsday clock

This is symbolic clock maintained since 01947* by the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. The clock is altered periodically to represent the perceived number of minutes to midnight, which represents Armageddon by nuclear war. The clock was wound back significantly at the end of the cold war in the 1990s, but has since moved nearer to midnight due to the increasing instability in the Middle East.

The Spaceguard Foundation

This is a network of national organisations involved in studying and tracking significant Near-Earth Objects (NEO)

Alliance to Rescue Civilization

This is an organisation that aims to create an off-Earth backup of human civilisation that is able to repopulate the Earth in event of a global disaster or reintroduce knowledge of science and the arts.

*Five digits are used here to denote years, in honour of the Long Now Foundation who use this format to help promote long-term thinking