Earth Library (2024)

Global Knowledge Vault

The Global Knowledge Vault (“GKV”) is the first major installation in the Arch Mission Foundation’s Earth Library section of the Billion Year Archive initiative. 

Located inside the Hagerbach deep underground research facility in Switzerland, the GKV began on January 13, 2024 with the installation of the English Wikipedia and the Rosetta Project of archive all known languages. 

The first installment of data was encoded by Dr. Peter Kazansky and team, at the University of Southampton Optoelectronics Centre, to 5D optical data storage media, in quartz silica glass, with a durability of 14 billion years, inside a specially constructed metallic container and stored inside a vault within a deep underground cave. 

It is important to note that the initial sets of knowledge can be recovered with a microscope - and do not require advanced technology such as computers or lasers. We will include additional microscope-accessible  knowledge that teaches everything necessary to retrieve digital data that will be included in the future as well. 

Subsequent installments of further archives to this location are planned to include the full spectrum of knowledge about history, literature, arts and entertainment, science, technology, economics and law, the humanities, cultures, religions, content and more. 

Along with this data we also will archive physical species and human DNA, as well as specially sealed and protected physical devices (such as microscopes, etc.) necessary for accessing and recovering the content of the archives. 

As well as this first location, we plan to expand into other locations, with a goal of opening a similar location on each continent. These locations will all contain maps to the other locations as well as the locations of our archives in space and vice versa, forming a solar-system-wide library of humanity’s important knowledge and heritage. 

We are seeking contributions for each location. Contact us if you have interest in helping with this.