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(a selection from |8ttl 1tut8. by Michael Shames)

The original signed Magna Carta resides here. The copy in the British Museum is a fake.
It is too important a document to be accessible to the public, he explained.
Too important a document! I knew this to be an understatement. My training as a
forensic historian taught me that the Magna Carta a 1215 document which coined the word
freeman -- served as the foundation of individual freedom. It is the one document that
inspired the authors of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and numerous national
constitutions. This document was far too important to be hidden in a glass-entombed vault in
the middle of nowhere.
And this is the Conseil Europen pour la Recherche Nuclaire relinquishment to the patent
rights of the World Wide Web, an action that led to the creation of what we now call the
Internet.
Indeed, the CERN letter which gave up all intellectual property rights to the World Wide
Web created by CERN employee Tim Berners-Lee laid before me in another hermitically sealed
glass case. It was the document that enabled the creation of the Internet, as we know it by
making it unpatentable. No one could own the property rights to the network that connects all
corners of our planet.
And in this case, over here, are the 12 cuneiform tablets that make up what are commonly
referred to as the Epic of Gilgamesh, but which historians such as yourself recognize as the
first complete written story in all of humankind. Next to these clay tablets lay similar tablets
labeled The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep and Hammurabis Code of Laws, among the earliest
codification of law in human history.
How could this be? I asked. How did these documents come to this nowhere Norwegian
island?
Id overstepped; my host looked hurt. It was clear that he didnt consider Svalbard - an
island archipelago halfway between Norway and the North Pole - as nowhere." Some 1200
miles from Oslo, Norway, this remotest of remote outposts throughout the world was, I was
learning, the home to some of the greatest historical treasures in the world. I quickly realized
that, in his mind, my host was the curator of the most exclusive museum in the world, and he was
charged with protecting humankinds most valuable assets: its knowledge. Either that, or I was
about to become the butt of a very nasty joke.
I had heard about the vaunted Global Seed Vault located in Svalbard, where almost one
million seeds are preserved for future generations. With its dual blast-proof doors with motion
sensors, two airlocks, and walls of steel-reinforced concrete one meter thick, it was built to
contain up to three million varieties of seeds from the entire world so that crop diversity could
be preserved into the future. So it wasnt as if the notion of a document vault was impossible.
However, it was still improbable and grew too implausible as my host continued:
If you come over here, you can find the original Dead Sea Scrolls. They are a mess our work
to undo the damage done by the so-called theological researchers has lasted decades. And over
here is Abraham Lincolns personal diary.
Lincoln had a personal diary? I never heard about that!
And you never will. It was too controversial for the 1800s, and would remain controversial
today. His sons realized after his death that a diary that denied the existence of God, condemned
organized religion and eloquently denounced the legitimacy of war would be condemned by the
mourning public. More importantly, they were concerned such a document would undermine the
reconstruction and reconciliation efforts of that time. So it was put into storage and has never
been released.
It really says that war is illegitimate?
And a lot more than that. He was a brilliant man; far ahead of his time. And despite being a
supremely pragmatic politician, he was a man of great intellectual depth.
I cant imagine, I gasped.
You dont know the half of it, he continued. We have also preserved Einsteins personal
notebook, which contains many of his incomplete hypotheses.
Incomplete? You mean not proven? I asked naively.
Some have been proved almost 100 years later. Some will likely not be proven for another few
generations. There are a few excerpted copies that reside in guarded libraries at technical
universities but there was a legitimate concern that if governments were to have full access to his
thoughts, they might lead to the creation of very dangerous technologies. Thats one of the
reasons that his estate put the original journal in our care.
On an island?
.for the same reason as the seed vault. Someone has to protect the great documents for
posterity. Here in Svalbard, they are safe. We have no crime. We have only 2000 inhabitants,
all sworn to protect these invaluable assets with their lives. And we are only accessible by
flights from Oslo. There is no safer place on this planet for these antiquities.
Im flattered that you share all of this with me.
As a fellow historian, I hoped that youd find this most enlightening.
Indeed. Might I ask what other important documents reside here?
Oh, so many things. Lets see. We house the original Greek manuscript of Plato's "Allegory
of the Cave," the Communist Manifesto, Martin Luther's 95 Theses, Mahatma Gandhi's "Quit
India" Speech, Nelson Mandela's Inaugural Address and even the Code of Urakagina, which is
close to 5,000 years old. Actually, we also have the 13,000-year-old bone upon which is carved
the first calendar; well, it at least counts the days to a lunar month and marks the phases of the
moon during the month. Thats almost a calendar.
Why do you have Mandelas speech that is a very public document and has been captured on
video?
He replied: We dont have the version that he orated. We have the one that he actually wrote
and was rejected by his advisors as too harsh. They took out his warnings and replaced them
with feel good aspirations. When you read his words: The evil that we have vanquished still
resides deep in troubled hearts ready to reemerge if we lose sight of our charge, you realize that
he understood the generational challenges that exist in any country seeking escape from
authoritarianism. What a shame that it, and other such observations, were removed from his
delivered speech.
How did you get the original version of the speech that he never gave?
He gave it to us to preserve for posterity. He hopes that it might be released when we feel his
words will be more appropriate.
Will you ever release it?
Not during his lifetime and probably not during mine either. History is only ours to
experience, and for others to learn.
The authors give you the originals? So what are the documents in the museums?
They are reproductions or amended versions, such as manuscript to 'Hitchhikers Guide to the
Universe'.
Douglas Adams book. An amended version? What could possibly have been amended that
warranted preservation?
He couldnt risk revealing the actual answer to Life, The Universe and Everything. So he
published the version that offered 42 and gave us the version of the book containing the actual
answer.

I must ask...
I cant answer. Mr. Adams requires us to withhold his original version from public viewing
until Richard Feynman is cloned and returned to our lives. Adams felt that Feynman was the
only intellect who could verify the answer he posited.
Surely, not all the famous documents you hold are amended versions..."
Of course not, most are original documents. High-quality reproductions reside in various
museums and archives.
But why?
The cost to preserve the originals is simply too high. Museums dont generate sufficient
income to spend on security and preservation. Most of the artifacts must be stored at sub-zero
temperatures and in places that are inaccessible to opportunistic collectors.
Collectors?
Private individuals who seek to attain the unattainable, he explained. There are some very
wealthy men who use their formidable resources to secure priceless works of art and antiquity.
Some view it as a hedge investment superior to rare metals. Others just view it as sport. But
they will spend tens of millions of dollars to buy or steal these documents. The museums dont
have the resources to build impenetrable archives.
So they reside in an island in the midst of the Arctic Circle? I summarized.
Could you think of a more secure location? We have unlimited electricity fueled by
geothermal and wave energy and anyone who tried to probe our defenses would be quickly
isolated and captured. Until transporters are invented, these documents are safe.
Transporters?
Einstein almost had them figured out, but we cant disclose that part of his notebooks. Its
release would have created havoc for us. We must wait until weve developed a transporter
shield.
When will that be developed?
Theres much that I cant reveal to you.
I must admit that I am overwhelmed. And yet Ive so many more questions.
It is why you were invited here, he responded.
This last statement was vexing. In fact, Id not been invited there. I was invited to
make a presentation in Oslo about use of holograms for future historical methodology. Due to
bad weather in Oslo, my flight had been diverted to Svalbard. We were just awaiting the word
from Oslo that the airport had been reopened. Im sorry, I corrected. I do not believe that I
was invited here, strictly speaking.
Perhaps the use of the word invited has caused some confusion, my host continued. We
arranged for your visit in a surreptitious manner. There were no weather issues in Oslo, and
your plane has continued to that city. I apologize for any inconveniences, but we needed to
arrange a meeting with you and could not find any other way to present The Vault to you other
than have you see it for yourself. Your hosts in Oslo have been fully briefed on the diversion.
Youve revealed the secrets of The Vault to them?
Oh my, no. We took the liberty to inform them that you had fallen ill during the flight and had
to be removed from the plane to get treatment.
Oh, I worried. Im afraid Im not comfortable with deception.
As historians, none of us are comfortable with deception. We are all committed to truth. Yet,
our role as truth protectors requires us to rely upon deception. Few people outside of Svalbard
know about the existence of The Vault. In fact, the majority of the Svalbardians know only of
the Seed Vault and not of this Document Vault. The Seed Vault has served as our cover, so to
speak. Some might call it a beard. Or, perhaps, our deception.
At that moment, I realized that I did not know the name of my host. I did not know
exactly where I was at that moment. In fact, I didnt exactly recall how Id gotten to The Vault.
My last recollection was getting off the plane at a very modest airport somewhere in the midst of
the Northern Atlantic. I did not know the time, the date nor when Id last eaten. Never before,
in my life, had I recalled being as knowledge-deprived as I felt at that moment. I expressed my
severe discomfort to my host.
I fully understand. Again, my sincerest apologies. If there were any other way to introduce
you to The Vault, Id have happily chosen that alternative. I can assure you that you have not
been kidnapped.
And I am free to go whenever I choose?
Of course, my friend. Of course, he reassured.
I dont recall exactly if those were his words, as it was quite a while ago. I dont know
precisely when although it was likely close to May 1
st
2010, when I took that flight to Oslo.
Similarly, I dont know when anyone will read this entry as none of my writings may leave The
Vault until sanctioned by the Release Team. I will likely be dead by the time that happens. By
that time, The Vault will have probably been moved to another location. Perhaps another planet.
I cant be sure. I can be reasonably certain that it will contain holographic recreations of some
of the important events and documents in our history a successful implementation of my
proposed methodology.
I do hope my journal is released at some point as I would like my familys heirs to know
that their historian uncle did not disappear for naught. I have spent the remainder of my life
studying some remarkable documents and reveling in the astonishing foresight and beauty of our
species greatest minds. It has been an incredible experience tempered only by the fact that my
host had deceived me. I was not free to leave Svarbard. Nor is anyone who visits The Vault.



Copyright 2014 by Michael Shames
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