SoftwareGitHub has a copy of every open source project in its database during 2020 located deep inside a frozen mineWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
SoftwareGitHub has a copy of every open source project in its database during 2020 located deep inside a frozen mineWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
You may have heard of various projects to back up the Earth’s best bits should anything catastrophic happen. The Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, for example, keeps a ‘backup’ of over a million seeds to prevent any from being eradicated. Just down the road lies another all-important backup: every active GitHub repository up to 2020, buried deep down in the permafrost.
GitHub has 188 hardened film reels down the mine in what it calls theArctic Code Vault. This contains every active repository as of February 2, 2020. That means any open-source software on the website at that time is now filed safely away for future generations, or aliens to discover once we’re all gone. That means even incredibly niche code for outdated servers is buried down there.
There’s a video over onTikTok from World Heritage on Svalbardthat shows what the actual GitHub container looks like. Check out the excellent little tagline inside the door: “Open Source has won.”
GitHub explains it more eloquently in the introduction buried with the data.
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“This is primarily an archive of software. Software is a series of commands used to control the actions of a computer. A computer is a device which can automatically perform mathematical functions so much faster than a human mind that it has powers far beyond us. Our computers are used to help explore the secrets of the universe, to connect all of humanity in an omnipresent web of information, to manipulate signals fast enough to transmit sounds and project detailed moving images onto electrical screens, and to control enormously powerful machinery which far exceeds both the capacity and precision of human labor.
“A computer without software can do none of these things. A computer is an extraordinary and marvelous thing, but without software, all its power is useless. The purpose of this archive is to pass what we know about software on to you.”
Take a peak at the QR codes used to store the data inside the code vault. I certainly wouldn’t want to try and access it without a computer.(Image credit: Github)
Peak Storage(Image credit: Future)Best SSD for gaming: The best speedy storage today.Best NVMe SSD: Compact M.2 drives.Best external hard drives: Huge capacities for less.Best external SSDs: Plug-in storage upgrades.
Peak Storage
(Image credit: Future)Best SSD for gaming: The best speedy storage today.Best NVMe SSD: Compact M.2 drives.Best external hard drives: Huge capacities for less.Best external SSDs: Plug-in storage upgrades.
(Image credit: Future)
Best SSD for gaming: The best speedy storage today.Best NVMe SSD: Compact M.2 drives.Best external hard drives: Huge capacities for less.Best external SSDs: Plug-in storage upgrades.
In a few ways, this data will only be useful to anyone with a PC built on the same foundations as our own. That’s why GitHub also includes something called the Tech Tree.
You can find the entire guide of how to read one of these files over on theGitHub Code Vault guide, should you ever need it. Here’s hoping no one ever does. Though it’s a wonderful idea to value and store all this open-source software, should the worst ever happen.
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