An artificial solar system made of six stars of the same kind placed to make a hexagon: this view is described in an old novel by Arthur C. Clarke (I’ve forgotten its title, sorry); the whole thing was made by an alien civilization before its extinction and, million years later, it still reminds the human explorer the greatness of its creators.
This story came back to my mind some weeks ago reading a well known article about what could survive our civilization in the long term (I lost the link, sorry again).
Our radio signal is larger than a century so its “sphere” will grow endlessly or something… but what about a more rock solid sign? I know we are not ready for an artificial solar system (we are on a budget and I guess some green warriors will try to stop the whole project :D) but what could we create, or what have we already created that will survive us in the long term? No, nuclear pollution doesn’t count :).
It’s funny that these kind of things are written on a blog whose name means temporariness :).
Last update: 2008-07-08
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I think the book you want is “Against the Fall of Night”.
Nothing on Earth is likely to last more than a few hundred million years, due to geological recycling and our highly destructive atmosphere. Our best bet for a local monument is probably Luna or a large, airless moon of one of the outer planets. Possibly even Ceres.
My design would be a well-protected monument to humanity surrounded by a planetary-scale construction on the surface pointing to it. Possibly a thousand-mile-a-side equilateral triangle with the monument at the centre. Something obviously artificial.
Good luck getting funding, though.
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