So, here’s the deal: You’ve managed to acquire the data, but disaster strikes, and your time machine is destroyed by an enemy time traveler team. This is crucial historical data that you’ll have to get into the future to avert the apocalypse. Due to the constraints of the space-time continuum, all time travelers staying outside of their “home” time for longer than 1 year will die, so you have exactly 1 year to prepare. How do you make sure the future discovers the data, while preventing the enemy time traveler faction from stealing the data?

(Remember: don’t just chuck it in a hard drive and bury it in a forest somewhere, the data will degrade)

  • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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    10 hours ago

    Release the data on the public internet in an encrypted form. With the data, include a message openly admitting you’re a time traveler. Include predictions of events that are relatively resistant to the butterfly effect and will have little effect on the time stream. For example, I would include a long list of future supernovae and other astrophysical phenomena. Such data would accelerate the field of astronomy a bit, but it wouldn’t really affect life on Earth much. And it would prove that you’re either a time traveler or someone with access to FTL travel technology. In your message, tell people the data is of vital importance to the future of humanity and that it will be needed in a crucial hour.

    There will be enough people who preserve a copy of the data and pass it along to their children and grandchildren. Forget relying on technical solutions. This is one you can rely on people for. Unless there’s some complete collapse of technological society, the data will be preserved.