'Doomsday vault' contains all of humanity's data

In addition to the Global Seed Vault, Norway has just built a new vault, dedicated to storing data of all humanity in case of an apocalypse on Earth.

The new vault, officially called the Arctic World Archive, is located nearly 1,000km from the North Pole in Svalbard, Norway. It was built at Mine 3, an abandoned coal mine near the Global Seed Vault.

The World Archive in the Arctic officially opened this week. Countries around the world are encouraged to send in their culturally significant data to be stored there, protected from loss, destruction or damage by natural or man-made means. Already, data has been sent in from Mexico and Brazil.

A Norwegian company called Piql is taking on the task of converting and storing digital data onto multilayered, light-sensitive analog films. The process is similar to turning data into “large QR codes on film.” Each of these special films is expected to last between 500 and 1,000 years, Piql claims.

According to Piql’s documents, a country can upload tests, images, or audio-visual content to the company’s servers. The data is then transferred to a special membrane designed to withstand any major damage.

They are then placed in a secure box and placed in a heavily guarded vault. As long as the Internet and servers are up and running, people can search for these data online. At the request of the user, they can be transmitted digitally or transported in a physical format of their choice.

Analog storage is generally considered more “futuristic” than digital. It doesn’t require codecs, updating efforts, or operating systems to decode information in the event of a catastrophic planetary disaster. Even in the short term, it could be useful for a government to store its precious data.

According to VNN