Oyez100
Posted on 01/17/2007 11:22:06 AM PST by truthfinder9
ARC Mission
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The mission of the Alliance to Rescue Civilization (ARC) is to protect the human species and its civilization from destruction that could result from a global catastrophic event, including nuclear war, acts of terrorism, plague and asteroid collisions. To fulfill its mission, ARC is dedicated to creating continuously staffed facilities on the Moon and other locations away from Earth. These facilities will preserve backups of scientific and cultural achievements, and of the species important to our civilization. In the event of a global catastrophe, the ARC facilities will be prepared to reintroduce lost technology, art, history, crops, livestock and, if necessary, even human beings to the Earth.
ARC Vision
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The Alliance to Rescue Civilization is a very long-term international project. It seeks to copy and continuously update the essence of Earth in its many forms for safekeeping at a manned site off the planet (the Moon or a huge station are the leading candidates.) ARC would in effect comprehensively back up Earth's collective hard drive for use in rescuing and rebuilding the planet in the event of a catastrophic disaster, natural or man-made. It would in no sense be a time capsule, but would rather be an updated record of Earth's multiple life forms, flora and fauna, and its broad spectrum of arts and sciences, history, technology and all else that constitutes the planet's collective nature and culture.
In the event of a major catastrophe, for example worldwide plague, comet impact, nuclear war or social collapse, the staff of ARC will function in a rescue capacity rather than as librarians. They will be prepared to help the survivors reestablish a functioning technological society, or in the worst instance, to repopulate the Earth themselves, and re-introduce the additionally needed biological species here. The primary mission of ARC will be to secure our tenancy of this planet, although it is fully compatible with plans to extend human settlement beyond the Earth-Moon system. ARC will provide our manned space program with the central purpose which it has so sorely lacked, linking it firmly to human survival on our home planet and elsewhere. The ARC facility will stand as a visible and inspiring symbol of our aspirations, one which can overcome the negative connotations associated with disaster relief. With ARC in place, of course, other scientific and commercial uses of space will be facilitated. ARC can serve as an engine that pulls many freight cars.
The large scope and lengthy time span needed for ARC will require a comparable support system. Hopefully, some version of the project will continue as long as earth remains habitable - it transcends national boundaries and the lifetimes of administrations and political systems. While funding from national space agencies and the corporate sector for research and development on specific systems would be accepted, adaptive archiving technology, for example, its core sustenance will be based on private sector philanthropy. As an international, privately endowed Foundation, it could not easily be held hostage by unfavorable local circumstances. ARC will attempt to persuade a significant fraction of the human population to support its activities, but has no need to achieve a consensus. Religious groups who believe Earth is a staging ground from which we all will soon be called to the hereafter, and nihilists who feel that any effort to secure our future is futile, can simply be left alone to follow their own agendas.
A trek up a high mountain still begins with small steps. In the case of ARC, we will need to publicize the idea, attract supporters, and gather an endowment. At an early stage, a director, administrative assistants, and advisory committees will be needed. Among the matters to be considered are possible stages and timetables for project development, the compilation of lists of material to be archived, questions concerning storage and retrieval of materials, an inventory of potential hazards that threaten our existence, a consideration of the resources needed for various rescue scenarios, and the design of an initial functioning lunar facility.
As individuals, we are accustomed to insurance as a means of protecting things important to ourselves - our homes, health, cars and our very lives. As a civilization, however, we are driving blindly into the future with no insurance at all, despite the fact that we have very many precious things that we do not want to lose. The scientific advances of the last generation, in space, computers and biotechnology, have now made it possible for us to insure our civilization, and ARC is dedicated to that purpose.
Just don't reintroduce the Koran.
Bob, you might be interested in this...
What we need to protect is Western civilization from destruction by the forces of Islamic fascism.
BLACK Helicopter Alert !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kewl. Need to build a Googleplex there...
Do they have Ted Williams head in the cryo freezer?
"ALL wealthy moon(literally)bats - pick up the white courtesy phones!!!!!!"
More liberal global whining, trying to sell a book. Al-gore lite.
I really get a buzz in my hackles when I read this.
Anyone who is really serious about this idea, contact me. I can tell you how to do it.
It is also imaginary. Repeal the Treaty.
Rename it Organization to Repeal Communism--ORC, and then it will be a Blakean fantasy.
Since when is protecting mankind from "nuclear war, acts of terrorism, plague and asteroid collisions" a "liberal" cause?
I'll do the second-fixing....
;)
Another scam.
Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man.Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Yes, it's possible, but you have to go there to do it.
Install a nuclear powered mass-driver, and dismantle the asteroid as you fling chunks of it away. Given sufficient time and mass-drivers, almost any sub-planetary mass can be moved in this way.
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