January 21, 2010 • 22 mins
In this disaster-themed episode of Stuff You Should Know, Josh and Chuck ponder ways the world could end -- and how projects like the lunar Doomsday Ark propose to save humanity.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me as always Charles W.
Chuck Bryant. Who's making fun of the weight gain I've
(00:24):
managed to accumulate over the holiday? I'm not I just
you seem like you were pointing that out, and so
I guessed you honestly don't look like you've gained any weight. Thanks. Sure,
well I gave someone for Christmas, but I've dropped a
few cents. Yeah, I was looking at you. I'm like,
Chuck's face looks a lot of slimmer. When was this
like two days ago? I really? God leestion, Chuck, let's
(00:46):
get started show. Yes, what is your bet for how
the world is going to end? Uh? The large had
run collider? Maybe a third World War starting in the
Middle East. I'm gonna go with now, atural disasters setting
off a chain reaction of events. What would those chain
reaction of events be? Oh, you know, paranoia, chaos, dogs
(01:11):
and cats living together, man fighting man woman fighting man
woman fighting woman my favorite and uh, Yeah, then everyone
kills each other. That's what I'm going with. What do
you think I think it's going to be a single
cataclysmic event. I think that humans are really good at
adapting to stuff e g. Climate change, that kind of thing.
(01:31):
I don't think it has the gumption to wipe out
humanity a natural event or a human generated event. It
could be either one like a major asteroid impact or
a nuclear holocaust. I think it's going to be something
like that, something big and sudden. I think Facebook and
Twitter will play a part in my scenario. Well no, no,
that's the degradation of society. This is the destruction of
(01:52):
humanity we're talking about. Well no, I mean once the
chain reaction starts, I think things can get out of control.
With information being a so easily uh doled out. You know,
this is why I love us, Chuck, Like, we have
not spoken about this at all. I sent you a
link like how about this for this stuff? You should
know and we haven't spoken about it, right, right, And
(02:12):
one of the things that um I came up with
for the intro was that we're a very paranoid species
and you've just touched on that too. Yeah, thank you
for being you, Chuck Bryan. I was talking to Emily
about that the other day, that no one really knows
what social media is gonna do, right, And I could
definitely see paranoia spreading false true, spreading so fast that
(02:33):
it gets out of control. And what's the deal with Twitter?
Can you really say anything important twelve fifteen times a
day in a hundred and sixty characters or less? You're
asking the wrong guy, I don't think so. You've got
a Twitter page, yeah, but I won't ever use it. Know,
I did for a little while and just kind of
like a week, but it was a it was a
(02:54):
hell of a week. Fan. I've been saying hell a
lot in podcasts lately, have you noticed. Yeah, listen to
the Sun one. Okay, hell, hell all over the place? Fire? Yeah,
speaking of hell and fire. So we're talking about the
the um world ending and we're talking about humanity being paranoid. Uh.
And one of those I guess beneficial byproducts of that
(03:17):
paranoia is UM planning, good, good, sensible planning. Right. You
ever heard of a little country called Norway? I have Norwegians. There.
You're going with a seed vault. Let's start with that.
What's the official name of it. Do you know the
seed vault in Norway? The Fault? Yeah, it's pretty cool.
(03:37):
What they've done is they have taken um pretty much
every seed known to man, like one and a half
million species, along with equipment right to help grow things,
and they put it in a vault buried deep within
the earth. Is it I think it's in a mountain
side somewhere in the Arctic. Okay, yeah, I don't know exactly.
I think it isn't a mountain side. Actually, now they
(04:00):
should research this. Well, no, there's a well, this isn't
even this is totally supplemental right, and we're doing this
off the top of our heads. Um. But yeah, I
remember hearing that the entrances in the side of a mountain.
But yeah, so, um, there's a bunch of seeds. The
ideas we grow things again, right if we're wiped out,
and then the British have an underground vault that is uh,
(04:22):
basically a d NA depository. Yeah. I didn't know about
this one until today. Yeah, they have genetic samples from
all manner of um, plant and animal right material people
kind of things. Yeah, they said that you could potentially
rebuild an ecosystem with this stuff. Yeah, specifically which ecosystem.
I'm not entirely certain is it a desert because who
(04:44):
really wants to rebuild that? Nobody? Good point, right, um.
And then of course we have the point of this article. Right,
there's a there's a nice little moniker that gets tacked
onto these things like the seed vault in Norway, the
DNA vault in Britain, um, doomsday arcs. Right, those are
more than one. Well, yeah, the nor the Norwegian things
(05:06):
that doomsday are. So I thought you're you're going to
talk about the specific one we're talking about what to
the lunar doomsday are. You can't just say doomsday are
because people say which one, the one in Britain, the
one in Norway, so they all fall under that larger heading.
Did not realize that it's true. Good info things, man,
So we're talking today about the lunar doomsday are, right, Chuck,
(05:27):
Which is a concept that was first proposed in a
book by a guy named Robert Shapiro, not the lawyer,
um called Planetary Dreams I believe, right, and then again
in oh six right by some actual scientists. Look at Yeah,
he's actually a member of the Alliance to Rescue Civilization,
(05:49):
which sounds cookie, but Robert Shapiro and his colleagues that
form the higher ups that the a r C are
actually really well respected. Their scientists, science writers, physicists, uh, engineers, um.
And they've come together create this group that is trying
to carry out this idea of creating a doomsday vault
(06:11):
on the moon. And they're based at n y U
at New York University, right, and they officially actually tossed
this out in oh eight two uh, at a conference
in France. Yeah, and it has received a little bit
of chiding and a little bit of support as well. Yeah.
And I think the I was reading a blog post
on it, and you get kind of the sentiment that, um,
(06:33):
a lot of people are like, you guys are idiots.
You know, this is never going to work. And here's
what super cool. One of the comments on a blog
post I wrote about it was what harm can it do?
You know how much money have we funneled into NASA
just to get to the moon And been like, well,
we're here, okay. Cool. I mean, if this thing costs
even billions of dollars, let's dissolve a i G and
(06:57):
sell its holdings off and then you know, put it
into this. What can it hurt is the point? And
what could it help potentially is all of humanity? Right?
How in the planet? Well, Josh, The idea, like most
arcs and vaults, is to bury important things, um deep
within uh in this case the Moon, so they're protected
(07:17):
in case something really bad happens. Right. And what they
want to start with, um the Alliance to Rescue Civilization,
which by the way, was very much legitimized when the
European Space Agency got on board with this plan. Um.
So what this joint venture aims to do is to
put all of humanity's knowledge, not all of it, because
they are aware that there's not an infinite amount of storage,
(07:41):
but selected most important stuff among humanity. So there won't
be a drawer with our podcasts and hard disk, but
they won't even consider these. It'll be all this American life. Um.
They want to put it all on hard disk, right,
and uh bury it on the moon. Yes, and um
they're going to record all this in different languages. Pretty cool, um, Arabic, English, Chinese, Russian, French,
(08:07):
and Spanish. So you got your bases covered pretty much, right.
But what the hell's you see, I just did it again.
What's the point of burying some hard disks with all
of humanities knowledge on the moon anyway? Well, what you
got up there, dude, is DNA sequences, tech information, how
(08:28):
to make metals, how to rebuild that's you know, what
are you talking about? This valuable info? It is valuable
info if if and the whole point, remember, is to
help rebuild the humanity civilization if the people here on
Earth can access it. Okay, I got you right, that's
the most important part. Otherwise it's just gonna sit there.
So let's say that there is a a meteor. Let's
(08:51):
go with mine. Yeah, your makes more sense. A meteor
hits Earth, kills off everybody except like fifty people across
the planet. It's all it takes, buddy. Um. And they
they these fifty people start wandering around water World style
the Postman style. Take whatever film you want, um about
(09:13):
Bulderham style. That's probably the best style around, okay uh.
And they stumble upon one of four thousand Earth based
depositories repositories. And what they're going to find in these
things are computers that run on wind power, solar power,
and some preserved food and medical supplies, that kind of thing.
(09:35):
It would be like a bananza for them, right, Yes,
And when they hit the spacebar on these computers to
get the screen up, they're going to find that they
are receiving transmissions from the Moon if they survived, which is, well,
we'll get to them the downside of this. But that's
assuming that these receivers would survive that whatever cataclysm make event. So,
(10:00):
but let's say they did. So, the point of having
these hard discs buried on the Moon is that they're
going to be hooked to radio transmitters that constantly transmit
this information back to Earth. So, in addition to Debuc's lamar,
which really has very little value when you're rebuilding civilization, um,
there's going to be things like how to grow wheat,
(10:21):
how to grow corn, how to smell iron? Uh, and
how to rebuild civilization. Right, So they're going to do
it in like you said, I think seven different languages.
I guess with an instruction manual that any post apocalyptic
dummy can understand smelting for dummies. You know what else
they might have in there? What human and animal embryos? Yeah,
(10:43):
how's that? They were saying that the the suspended animation.
The temperature needed for suspended animation that they're figuring so far,
it's something like seventy kelvin, which is real low temperature.
You can't really do that here on Earth without sucking
up all the energy on the planet, but you can
(11:04):
in the shade of a lunar crater. Okay, so that's
definite possibility. Well, you also have to create an environment
that these things can can survive in. Right, it's not
like Earth. No, should we talk about that. Yes, it's
a three step process. Let's hear it, chuck. Okay, First,
what you have to do is build some machines that
(11:25):
generate the proper gas mix that basically replicate our atmosphere,
because you have to create a little mini Earth inside
the moon, which is kind of mind blowing actually, uh,
because you can, by the way, by the way, and
the plants, uh, you know, can thrive inside this atmosphere
and then they eventually decompose and release what CEO two. Yes,
(11:46):
they release carbon dioxide deadly to humans unless there's something present,
like algae perhaps, so they bring along Mr algae and
Mr algae absorbs the c O two amidst oxygen and
basically establishes a cycle just like we have here on Earth. Yeah,
and bing bang boom done. You know what you have
(12:07):
right there? What atmospheric conditions that are suitable to sustain
human life? Perfect. So, all of a sudden, now you
have a place, this, this lunar arc now becomes a
lunar colony potentially. Yeah, well, it'd be great if we
had a colony up there. First. Well, yeah, we need
people to tend to the stuff. That's the ideal scenario.
(12:28):
In the meantime, ARC is saying that they we could
do it through the use of robotics for a while,
make sure that all this stuff is functioning properly. But
if you can make it so that this is sustainable
for human habitation, then you have a lunar colony. Right.
So let's say that um, that meteor does hit and
(12:51):
it wipes out all but fifty people, and by spectacular coincidence,
all four thousand sites, these repository sites, basically bomb shelters
um are also wiped out. That's bad. It is bad
news for the fifty people on Earth. Luckily, we've got
the people up on the moon who could come back
(13:11):
down here and say, hey, here's all the information you
need to know. Let's show you how to smell iron, buddy.
You know. So that's a kind of one of the
big points of the plan is that if we can
get humans up there, then we have taken a part
of the human population out of the equation of a
global disaster. They'll just be up on the moon like
(13:33):
that stinks, and then they'll have to wait like a
little while if all of humanity is wiped out. Part
of the contingency plan for this is that, um, the
people up there in the moon will wait a century
maybe two, and then come back down to Earth, and
then the sexy business starts. Well, if they're waiting a
century too up there, then there's gonna be sexy business
(13:55):
on the moon too. Sure, there will be sexy business
on the moon. But then they're gonna bring their sexy
business back to Earth, which means the first people will
be born on the moon. Sure they will not be
earth links. Technically they be moon links. Nice point a
cute little moon links with a little edibleknee gapps. So
then once that happens, uh, and in humanity repopulates the
(14:16):
Earth through their sexy business, Um, everything is saved. It
basically we went to the Moon, waited for the cataclysmic
event to occur, waited for the dust to settle, went
back and we're like, all right, let's do this again. Right.
What is wrong with this plan? Well, there's a lot
of problems potentially, um that I that I can see.
One is a like I said earlier, you have to
(14:37):
count on the fact that these receivers will ah not
be wiped out as well. Their answer to that is, well,
let's say they are wiped out, Um, we'll still have
the information for man to eventually rebuild them and make
them work again. Right, and the the lunar arc will
be transmitting still that whole time. So when they when
(14:58):
they do get these radio trans emitters, the receiver's back
up and operating. Uh, they'll be like, oh, here's all
the information we need from the Moon. It sounds a
little far fetched to me, doesn't it. Yeah, a bit.
One of the other problems, Josh is, uh, no one
is going to know where these are are hidden. Isn't
that correct? Right? You're not exactly publishing that. No. If
(15:18):
you do, then you've got somebody like the creepy blonde
guy from the movie Contact trying to sabotage it, right
or Geo Casier's sure the the most nefarious group of all. Right,
it takes some take the radio transmitter and leave some
Butanese money in its place, where Santana c D and
I say that because we got some Boutanese money. This
from a geocascher, from a geocasher who who's just this
(15:41):
convergence of our podcasts, I'm walking convergence of stuff you
should know. And really also, I think one of the
reasons that this is um such a derided plan, not
by me, I want to say, like, I know it
sounded like I'm I'm I'm chiding here there, I'm really not,
Like I think it's a good idea to come up
with the money. It doesn't you know, take food out
(16:01):
of starving people's mouths. Let's do it right, Um, But
I think the the whole thing hinges on a lunar colony. Like, yes,
we could bury hard disks under the lunar surface, we
could start broadcasting transmissions, but really we have to have
people on the moon with an ability to get back
and forth from the Earth to the Moon for this
(16:22):
to really really work. Right, that's the ideal, and that
is we're nowhere near that. We're a long way off.
They've poked around that that scenario a bit, but it's
not it's not ramped up anytime soon. No, they do
hope to have that UM that stuff buried by Yeah,
and then what was the other date? They want to
have UM living organisms in that three part atmospheric creator machine.
(16:49):
Sounds like the serious future, But I said that about
two when I was it's not a little seventh grader,
and now it's the future. Yeah, we're living in the future.
And there was one other point that UM I thought
was pretty interesting. I read about this UM the whole
sentiment of it. While it does underlining our paranoia as
a species, it also underlines are um disposable mentality, Like
(17:15):
we're like, Okay, the Earth is screwed up, We'll just
move onto the moon, you know what I'm saying, rather
than try you know, climate change was a big reason
that this whole idea was proposed. So rather than do
anything about it, let's just figure out a way to
get out of here. See what other planet we can
mess up? Yeah, have you heard of terraforming? Uh? Now
they're talking about terraforming Mars. I'm not exactly sure what
(17:37):
they would shoot into the atmosphere around Marsh, but they
are shooting into orbit around Mars. But they there's I
guess um, elements that they can put into orbit around
Mars that could spontaneously generate an atmosphere which would habitable atmosphere, right,
which would essentially turn Mars into it, you know, the
New Earth. Cool? Yeah, get your ast the Mars. Thank
(18:00):
you for that name that movie. Uh, total recall. I
am AT's a very good job. All right, So, Chuck,
I think that's about it for the Doomsday Arc. If
you want to read about that or the Norwegian seed Bank,
I don't know if we have one on the No, no,
we got one on the Norwegian seed Bank. Then okay.
You can type Doomsday Arc into the handy search bart
(18:22):
how stuff works dot com. It will bring up all
manner of interesting stuff. Uh. And of course that leads
us to listener mail. Yes, I did want to say
an official thank you to Mark from Massachusetts for sending
us Boutanese money. Yeah. Thanks Mark. He leaves those as
his little geo cashing treats and the as little found items,
(18:46):
and I did look it up. One U S Dollar
is equal to forty five. However, you pronounced at Goldtram's. Yeah,
that's not very much money. No, but it's pretty. It
was a sentiment. Yeah, it's very pretty. I like her
ugly American money. Okay, Josh, I'm gonna call this funny
email so you get on the ear. This from Kelly. Okay, Josh,
(19:07):
and Chuck. I recently heard a podcast where a woman
wrote in to say your podcast saved her life. I
felt compelled to tell you that you also saved another
nearly unfortunate soul, that of my coworker. Oh, yeah, you see,
you read this one. She's from Detroit. Yeah, you see.
I work for a local magazine in a small office
that consists of about twenty short cubicles. For the most part,
the people I work with are great, but I always
(19:29):
assume there is the exception of one. Uh. I liken
her to the case of the Monday is woman from
office Space, great movie. She choosing pops her gum incessantly.
She repeatedly and loudly sized oive throughout the day. Someone
taught her that word one day, and she thought it
was the greatest thing. Since she learned to blame everything
(19:49):
on Murphy's Law. She wears ungodly amounts of perfume that
smells of my grandmother's couch and lingers well after she
has left the area. And possibly worst, but definitely not last,
she was loudly Christmas carols in mid summer. Do you
know what's more irritating than a poison ivy rash and
a spot you can't reach? Josh hearing let it snow
(20:10):
whistled through the maw of an obnoxious co worker in July.
But let me assure you, I grew up with three
older brothers. I'm a poster child for tolerance. This woman
would try the patience of a saint. One day, when
I was at my wits end, another coworker of mine
came into the office looking a little under the weather.
I asked him what was up, and he said his
brain had shrunk, and went on to explain that he
had one too many the night before and subsequently his
(20:31):
body had stolen water from his brain. And basically this
is how she learned of our podcast. Because this guy
to hangover now, whenever I want to hear the unmistakable
first notes of Oh Holy Night, my favorite Christmas song,
I plug in and let your sweet voices of salvation
take me away. So on behalf of me and my
co worker that I nearly went postal on. Thank you
(20:51):
and keep up the good work Kelly. Thanks Kelly. She's
not murdering anybody. She almost killed a co worker. Yeah,
I think I would do. Yeah, she sounds kind of annial.
Nice check. Before I give a call out for emails,
I want to mention our Keyva team. It's been a
little while. Good job, Josh, dude. We have generated since
(21:14):
the beginning of October, right the stuff you should know.
Listeners who have joined the Kyva team and donated have
had made over sixty thousand dollars in donations since the
beginning about It's awesome. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. We are
the seventh largest donation team. And here's what gets me, Josh,
I know that a scant percentage of our total listenership
(21:36):
has gotten involved here. Yeah. I think it's what like
two thousand, one thousand like members. I think. So let's
let like one half of a half of a percent
of our listenership, I think so. Yeah, Well, if you
want to join our Keyva team, there's always room for
one more or a hundred thousand more whatever you like. Uh,
Every once in a a while Chuck and I go on
(21:58):
the team message board and say high and there's all
manner of interesting people on their Yeah. You can check
it out at www dot Kiva. That's k I v
A dot org slash team singular slash stuff. You should
know right. It'll make you feel good, I promise you.
And if you have an email that contains a descriptor
(22:20):
of how your grandmother's couch smells, you can wrap it
up and send it to stuff podcast at how stuff
works dot com for more on this and thousands of
other topics. Does it how stuff works dot com. Want
more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the house.
(22:40):
Stuff works dot com home page. Brought to you by
the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me as always Charles W.
Chuck Bryant. Who's making fun of the weight gain I've
(00:24):
managed to accumulate over the holiday? I'm not I just
you seem like you were pointing that out, and so
I guessed you honestly don't look like you've gained any weight. Thanks. Sure,
well I gave someone for Christmas, but I've dropped a
few cents. Yeah, I was looking at you. I'm like,
Chuck's face looks a lot of slimmer. When was this
like two days ago? I really? God leestion, Chuck, let's
(00:46):
get started show. Yes, what is your bet for how
the world is going to end? Uh? The large had
run collider? Maybe a third World War starting in the
Middle East. I'm gonna go with now, atural disasters setting
off a chain reaction of events. What would those chain
reaction of events be? Oh, you know, paranoia, chaos, dogs
(01:11):
and cats living together, man fighting man woman fighting man
woman fighting woman my favorite and uh, Yeah, then everyone
kills each other. That's what I'm going with. What do
you think I think it's going to be a single
cataclysmic event. I think that humans are really good at
adapting to stuff e g. Climate change, that kind of thing.
(01:31):
I don't think it has the gumption to wipe out
humanity a natural event or a human generated event. It
could be either one like a major asteroid impact or
a nuclear holocaust. I think it's going to be something
like that, something big and sudden. I think Facebook and
Twitter will play a part in my scenario. Well no, no,
that's the degradation of society. This is the destruction of
(01:52):
humanity we're talking about. Well no, I mean once the
chain reaction starts, I think things can get out of control.
With information being a so easily uh doled out. You know,
this is why I love us, Chuck, Like, we have
not spoken about this at all. I sent you a
link like how about this for this stuff? You should
know and we haven't spoken about it, right, right, And
(02:12):
one of the things that um I came up with
for the intro was that we're a very paranoid species
and you've just touched on that too. Yeah, thank you
for being you, Chuck Bryan. I was talking to Emily
about that the other day, that no one really knows
what social media is gonna do, right, And I could
definitely see paranoia spreading false true, spreading so fast that
(02:33):
it gets out of control. And what's the deal with Twitter?
Can you really say anything important twelve fifteen times a
day in a hundred and sixty characters or less? You're
asking the wrong guy, I don't think so. You've got
a Twitter page, yeah, but I won't ever use it. Know,
I did for a little while and just kind of
like a week, but it was a it was a
(02:54):
hell of a week. Fan. I've been saying hell a
lot in podcasts lately, have you noticed. Yeah, listen to
the Sun one. Okay, hell, hell all over the place? Fire? Yeah,
speaking of hell and fire. So we're talking about the
the um world ending and we're talking about humanity being paranoid. Uh.
And one of those I guess beneficial byproducts of that
(03:17):
paranoia is UM planning, good, good, sensible planning. Right. You
ever heard of a little country called Norway? I have Norwegians. There.
You're going with a seed vault. Let's start with that.
What's the official name of it. Do you know the
seed vault in Norway? The Fault? Yeah, it's pretty cool.
(03:37):
What they've done is they have taken um pretty much
every seed known to man, like one and a half
million species, along with equipment right to help grow things,
and they put it in a vault buried deep within
the earth. Is it I think it's in a mountain
side somewhere in the Arctic. Okay, yeah, I don't know exactly.
I think it isn't a mountain side. Actually, now they
(04:00):
should research this. Well, no, there's a well, this isn't
even this is totally supplemental right, and we're doing this
off the top of our heads. Um. But yeah, I
remember hearing that the entrances in the side of a mountain.
But yeah, so, um, there's a bunch of seeds. The
ideas we grow things again, right if we're wiped out,
and then the British have an underground vault that is uh,
(04:22):
basically a d NA depository. Yeah. I didn't know about
this one until today. Yeah, they have genetic samples from
all manner of um, plant and animal right material people
kind of things. Yeah, they said that you could potentially
rebuild an ecosystem with this stuff. Yeah, specifically which ecosystem.
I'm not entirely certain is it a desert because who
(04:44):
really wants to rebuild that? Nobody? Good point, right, um.
And then of course we have the point of this article. Right,
there's a there's a nice little moniker that gets tacked
onto these things like the seed vault in Norway, the
DNA vault in Britain, um, doomsday arcs. Right, those are
more than one. Well, yeah, the nor the Norwegian things
(05:06):
that doomsday are. So I thought you're you're going to
talk about the specific one we're talking about what to
the lunar doomsday are. You can't just say doomsday are
because people say which one, the one in Britain, the
one in Norway, so they all fall under that larger heading.
Did not realize that it's true. Good info things, man,
So we're talking today about the lunar doomsday are, right, Chuck,
(05:27):
Which is a concept that was first proposed in a
book by a guy named Robert Shapiro, not the lawyer,
um called Planetary Dreams I believe, right, and then again
in oh six right by some actual scientists. Look at Yeah,
he's actually a member of the Alliance to Rescue Civilization,
(05:49):
which sounds cookie, but Robert Shapiro and his colleagues that
form the higher ups that the a r C are
actually really well respected. Their scientists, science writers, physicists, uh, engineers, um.
And they've come together create this group that is trying
to carry out this idea of creating a doomsday vault
(06:11):
on the moon. And they're based at n y U
at New York University, right, and they officially actually tossed
this out in oh eight two uh, at a conference
in France. Yeah, and it has received a little bit
of chiding and a little bit of support as well. Yeah.
And I think the I was reading a blog post
on it, and you get kind of the sentiment that, um,
(06:33):
a lot of people are like, you guys are idiots.
You know, this is never going to work. And here's
what super cool. One of the comments on a blog
post I wrote about it was what harm can it do?
You know how much money have we funneled into NASA
just to get to the moon And been like, well,
we're here, okay. Cool. I mean, if this thing costs
even billions of dollars, let's dissolve a i G and
(06:57):
sell its holdings off and then you know, put it
into this. What can it hurt is the point? And
what could it help potentially is all of humanity? Right?
How in the planet? Well, Josh, The idea, like most
arcs and vaults, is to bury important things, um deep
within uh in this case the Moon, so they're protected
(07:17):
in case something really bad happens. Right. And what they
want to start with, um the Alliance to Rescue Civilization,
which by the way, was very much legitimized when the
European Space Agency got on board with this plan. Um.
So what this joint venture aims to do is to
put all of humanity's knowledge, not all of it, because
they are aware that there's not an infinite amount of storage,
(07:41):
but selected most important stuff among humanity. So there won't
be a drawer with our podcasts and hard disk, but
they won't even consider these. It'll be all this American life. Um.
They want to put it all on hard disk, right,
and uh bury it on the moon. Yes, and um
they're going to record all this in different languages. Pretty cool, um, Arabic, English, Chinese, Russian, French,
(08:07):
and Spanish. So you got your bases covered pretty much, right.
But what the hell's you see, I just did it again.
What's the point of burying some hard disks with all
of humanities knowledge on the moon anyway? Well, what you
got up there, dude, is DNA sequences, tech information, how
(08:28):
to make metals, how to rebuild that's you know, what
are you talking about? This valuable info? It is valuable
info if if and the whole point, remember, is to
help rebuild the humanity civilization if the people here on
Earth can access it. Okay, I got you right, that's
the most important part. Otherwise it's just gonna sit there.
So let's say that there is a a meteor. Let's
(08:51):
go with mine. Yeah, your makes more sense. A meteor
hits Earth, kills off everybody except like fifty people across
the planet. It's all it takes, buddy. Um. And they
they these fifty people start wandering around water World style
the Postman style. Take whatever film you want, um about
(09:13):
Bulderham style. That's probably the best style around, okay uh.
And they stumble upon one of four thousand Earth based
depositories repositories. And what they're going to find in these
things are computers that run on wind power, solar power,
and some preserved food and medical supplies, that kind of thing.
(09:35):
It would be like a bananza for them, right, Yes,
And when they hit the spacebar on these computers to
get the screen up, they're going to find that they
are receiving transmissions from the Moon if they survived, which is, well,
we'll get to them the downside of this. But that's
assuming that these receivers would survive that whatever cataclysm make event. So,
(10:00):
but let's say they did. So, the point of having
these hard discs buried on the Moon is that they're
going to be hooked to radio transmitters that constantly transmit
this information back to Earth. So, in addition to Debuc's lamar,
which really has very little value when you're rebuilding civilization, um,
there's going to be things like how to grow wheat,
(10:21):
how to grow corn, how to smell iron? Uh, and
how to rebuild civilization. Right, So they're going to do
it in like you said, I think seven different languages.
I guess with an instruction manual that any post apocalyptic
dummy can understand smelting for dummies. You know what else
they might have in there? What human and animal embryos? Yeah,
(10:43):
how's that? They were saying that the the suspended animation.
The temperature needed for suspended animation that they're figuring so far,
it's something like seventy kelvin, which is real low temperature.
You can't really do that here on Earth without sucking
up all the energy on the planet, but you can
(11:04):
in the shade of a lunar crater. Okay, so that's
definite possibility. Well, you also have to create an environment
that these things can can survive in. Right, it's not
like Earth. No, should we talk about that. Yes, it's
a three step process. Let's hear it, chuck. Okay, First,
what you have to do is build some machines that
(11:25):
generate the proper gas mix that basically replicate our atmosphere,
because you have to create a little mini Earth inside
the moon, which is kind of mind blowing actually, uh,
because you can, by the way, by the way, and
the plants, uh, you know, can thrive inside this atmosphere
and then they eventually decompose and release what CEO two. Yes,
(11:46):
they release carbon dioxide deadly to humans unless there's something present,
like algae perhaps, so they bring along Mr algae and
Mr algae absorbs the c O two amidst oxygen and
basically establishes a cycle just like we have here on Earth. Yeah,
and bing bang boom done. You know what you have
(12:07):
right there? What atmospheric conditions that are suitable to sustain
human life? Perfect. So, all of a sudden, now you
have a place, this, this lunar arc now becomes a
lunar colony potentially. Yeah, well, it'd be great if we
had a colony up there. First. Well, yeah, we need
people to tend to the stuff. That's the ideal scenario.
(12:28):
In the meantime, ARC is saying that they we could
do it through the use of robotics for a while,
make sure that all this stuff is functioning properly. But
if you can make it so that this is sustainable
for human habitation, then you have a lunar colony. Right.
So let's say that um, that meteor does hit and
(12:51):
it wipes out all but fifty people, and by spectacular coincidence,
all four thousand sites, these repository sites, basically bomb shelters
um are also wiped out. That's bad. It is bad
news for the fifty people on Earth. Luckily, we've got
the people up on the moon who could come back
(13:11):
down here and say, hey, here's all the information you
need to know. Let's show you how to smell iron, buddy.
You know. So that's a kind of one of the
big points of the plan is that if we can
get humans up there, then we have taken a part
of the human population out of the equation of a
global disaster. They'll just be up on the moon like
(13:33):
that stinks, and then they'll have to wait like a
little while if all of humanity is wiped out. Part
of the contingency plan for this is that, um, the
people up there in the moon will wait a century
maybe two, and then come back down to Earth, and
then the sexy business starts. Well, if they're waiting a
century too up there, then there's gonna be sexy business
(13:55):
on the moon too. Sure, there will be sexy business
on the moon. But then they're gonna bring their sexy
business back to Earth, which means the first people will
be born on the moon. Sure they will not be
earth links. Technically they be moon links. Nice point a
cute little moon links with a little edibleknee gapps. So
then once that happens, uh, and in humanity repopulates the
(14:16):
Earth through their sexy business, Um, everything is saved. It
basically we went to the Moon, waited for the cataclysmic
event to occur, waited for the dust to settle, went
back and we're like, all right, let's do this again. Right.
What is wrong with this plan? Well, there's a lot
of problems potentially, um that I that I can see.
One is a like I said earlier, you have to
(14:37):
count on the fact that these receivers will ah not
be wiped out as well. Their answer to that is, well,
let's say they are wiped out, Um, we'll still have
the information for man to eventually rebuild them and make
them work again. Right, and the the lunar arc will
be transmitting still that whole time. So when they when
(14:58):
they do get these radio trans emitters, the receiver's back
up and operating. Uh, they'll be like, oh, here's all
the information we need from the Moon. It sounds a
little far fetched to me, doesn't it. Yeah, a bit.
One of the other problems, Josh is, uh, no one
is going to know where these are are hidden. Isn't
that correct? Right? You're not exactly publishing that. No. If
(15:18):
you do, then you've got somebody like the creepy blonde
guy from the movie Contact trying to sabotage it, right
or Geo Casier's sure the the most nefarious group of all. Right,
it takes some take the radio transmitter and leave some
Butanese money in its place, where Santana c D and
I say that because we got some Boutanese money. This
from a geocascher, from a geocasher who who's just this
(15:41):
convergence of our podcasts, I'm walking convergence of stuff you
should know. And really also, I think one of the
reasons that this is um such a derided plan, not
by me, I want to say, like, I know it
sounded like I'm I'm I'm chiding here there, I'm really not,
Like I think it's a good idea to come up
with the money. It doesn't you know, take food out
(16:01):
of starving people's mouths. Let's do it right, Um, But
I think the the whole thing hinges on a lunar colony. Like, yes,
we could bury hard disks under the lunar surface, we
could start broadcasting transmissions, but really we have to have
people on the moon with an ability to get back
and forth from the Earth to the Moon for this
(16:22):
to really really work. Right, that's the ideal, and that
is we're nowhere near that. We're a long way off.
They've poked around that that scenario a bit, but it's
not it's not ramped up anytime soon. No, they do
hope to have that UM that stuff buried by Yeah,
and then what was the other date? They want to
have UM living organisms in that three part atmospheric creator machine.
(16:49):
Sounds like the serious future, But I said that about
two when I was it's not a little seventh grader,
and now it's the future. Yeah, we're living in the future.
And there was one other point that UM I thought
was pretty interesting. I read about this UM the whole
sentiment of it. While it does underlining our paranoia as
a species, it also underlines are um disposable mentality, Like
(17:15):
we're like, Okay, the Earth is screwed up, We'll just
move onto the moon, you know what I'm saying, rather
than try you know, climate change was a big reason
that this whole idea was proposed. So rather than do
anything about it, let's just figure out a way to
get out of here. See what other planet we can
mess up? Yeah, have you heard of terraforming? Uh? Now
they're talking about terraforming Mars. I'm not exactly sure what
(17:37):
they would shoot into the atmosphere around Marsh, but they
are shooting into orbit around Mars. But they there's I
guess um, elements that they can put into orbit around
Mars that could spontaneously generate an atmosphere which would habitable atmosphere, right,
which would essentially turn Mars into it, you know, the
New Earth. Cool? Yeah, get your ast the Mars. Thank
(18:00):
you for that name that movie. Uh, total recall. I
am AT's a very good job. All right, So, Chuck,
I think that's about it for the Doomsday Arc. If
you want to read about that or the Norwegian seed Bank,
I don't know if we have one on the No, no,
we got one on the Norwegian seed Bank. Then okay.
You can type Doomsday Arc into the handy search bart
(18:22):
how stuff works dot com. It will bring up all
manner of interesting stuff. Uh. And of course that leads
us to listener mail. Yes, I did want to say
an official thank you to Mark from Massachusetts for sending
us Boutanese money. Yeah. Thanks Mark. He leaves those as
his little geo cashing treats and the as little found items,
(18:46):
and I did look it up. One U S Dollar
is equal to forty five. However, you pronounced at Goldtram's. Yeah,
that's not very much money. No, but it's pretty. It
was a sentiment. Yeah, it's very pretty. I like her
ugly American money. Okay, Josh, I'm gonna call this funny
email so you get on the ear. This from Kelly. Okay, Josh,
(19:07):
and Chuck. I recently heard a podcast where a woman
wrote in to say your podcast saved her life. I
felt compelled to tell you that you also saved another
nearly unfortunate soul, that of my coworker. Oh, yeah, you see,
you read this one. She's from Detroit. Yeah, you see.
I work for a local magazine in a small office
that consists of about twenty short cubicles. For the most part,
the people I work with are great, but I always
(19:29):
assume there is the exception of one. Uh. I liken
her to the case of the Monday is woman from
office Space, great movie. She choosing pops her gum incessantly.
She repeatedly and loudly sized oive throughout the day. Someone
taught her that word one day, and she thought it
was the greatest thing. Since she learned to blame everything
(19:49):
on Murphy's Law. She wears ungodly amounts of perfume that
smells of my grandmother's couch and lingers well after she
has left the area. And possibly worst, but definitely not last,
she was loudly Christmas carols in mid summer. Do you
know what's more irritating than a poison ivy rash and
a spot you can't reach? Josh hearing let it snow
(20:10):
whistled through the maw of an obnoxious co worker in July.
But let me assure you, I grew up with three
older brothers. I'm a poster child for tolerance. This woman
would try the patience of a saint. One day, when
I was at my wits end, another coworker of mine
came into the office looking a little under the weather.
I asked him what was up, and he said his
brain had shrunk, and went on to explain that he
had one too many the night before and subsequently his
(20:31):
body had stolen water from his brain. And basically this
is how she learned of our podcast. Because this guy
to hangover now, whenever I want to hear the unmistakable
first notes of Oh Holy Night, my favorite Christmas song,
I plug in and let your sweet voices of salvation
take me away. So on behalf of me and my
co worker that I nearly went postal on. Thank you
(20:51):
and keep up the good work Kelly. Thanks Kelly. She's
not murdering anybody. She almost killed a co worker. Yeah,
I think I would do. Yeah, she sounds kind of annial.
Nice check. Before I give a call out for emails,
I want to mention our Keyva team. It's been a
little while. Good job, Josh, dude. We have generated since
(21:14):
the beginning of October, right the stuff you should know.
Listeners who have joined the Kyva team and donated have
had made over sixty thousand dollars in donations since the
beginning about It's awesome. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. We are
the seventh largest donation team. And here's what gets me, Josh,
I know that a scant percentage of our total listenership
(21:36):
has gotten involved here. Yeah. I think it's what like
two thousand, one thousand like members. I think. So let's
let like one half of a half of a percent
of our listenership, I think so. Yeah, Well, if you
want to join our Keyva team, there's always room for
one more or a hundred thousand more whatever you like. Uh,
Every once in a a while Chuck and I go on
(21:58):
the team message board and say high and there's all
manner of interesting people on their Yeah. You can check
it out at www dot Kiva. That's k I v
A dot org slash team singular slash stuff. You should
know right. It'll make you feel good, I promise you.
And if you have an email that contains a descriptor
(22:20):
of how your grandmother's couch smells, you can wrap it
up and send it to stuff podcast at how stuff
works dot com for more on this and thousands of
other topics. Does it how stuff works dot com. Want
more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the house.
(22:40):
Stuff works dot com home page. Brought to you by
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