Materials

If you want knowledge to persist, materials matter as much as the message.

This isn’t a shopping list — it’s a set of constraints.

Principles

  • Prefer what erodes slowly
  • Prefer what fails gracefully (partial readability)
  • Prefer what’s inspectable without tools
  • Assume water, heat, freeze/thaw, wind, vandalism

Candidate mediums

Stone (baseline)

  • Pros: time-tested durability, readable after centuries.
  • Cons: expensive to work at scale; heavy; location-specific.

Fired ceramic / porcelain

  • Pros: very durable, high detail, chemically stable.
  • Cons: brittle; impact damage.

Stainless / titanium plates

  • Pros: precise engraving; high information density.
  • Cons: corrosion in harsh environments; theft risk; requires tooling to fabricate.

Placement strategy

  • Redundancy across sites beats one “perfect” site.
  • Put copies where people naturally shelter: caves, overhangs, old foundations.
  • Use geography: avoid flood plains; avoid soft rock; avoid unstable slopes.

Survivability checklist

  • Can a reader still extract value if 30% is missing?
  • If the site is buried, will it remain readable when uncovered?
  • If the surface is vandalized, is there a protected inner layer?