If the world comes to an end, at least our music will be safe. Introducing the Global Music Vault.
If you check the Doomsday Clock (the indicator from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that shows how close the world is to nuclear annihilation), it’s sitting at 90 seconds to midnight. It’s never been that close in all the years since the clock was unveiled in 1947. Swell.
If the planet does end up being a radioactive cinder, at least humanity’s music will be safe, thanks to the Global Music Vault.
The Vault is in Svalbard, a spot in northern Norway. It’s an old coal mine (100+ years) that’s already being used for Global Seed Vault (a place to store seeds for when a mutated humanity emerges from hiding) and the Arctic World Archive (a storage facility for historical and cultural documents, so we don’t have to completely start over).
Australian Luke Jenkinson has been working in Norway for some time. He admired the aims of both the Global Seed Vault and the Arctic World Archive and believe we should create a safe space dedicated to preserving the world’s music, just in case Kim Jong-un decides to pepper us with EMPs.
There’s now a “loose partnership” with Microsoft’s Project Silica to figure out a way to best store all the tens of millions of recordings that exist. The goal is to make sure this music is safe for “tens to hundreds of thousands of years” by storing music cut into square of quartz glass with a laser.
The tech is relatively simple compared to decided what music should be preserved. You can read more here.
