Will the moon save humanity?

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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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

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.

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 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, 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 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

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, 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, 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

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, 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 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 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.

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,

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, 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, 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 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 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, 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

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 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. 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 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 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 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 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, 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, 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

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. Stuff works dot com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready, are you