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00:00What would happen if every human being on Earth disappeared?
00:11This isn't the story of how we might vanish.
00:16It is the story of what happens to the world we leave behind.
00:23In this episode of Life After People,
00:26man tried to preserve his legacy by hiding his treasures.
00:31People buried important objects, locked them away, launched them into orbit.
00:37And in one mysterious site in America, some literally created a crypt of civilization.
00:45But can any of these crypts stand the test of time?
00:48This is just part of a journey that will take us to the future of once-crowded cities,
00:53as well as this abandoned mental hospital that some say is haunted.
00:59Welcome to Earth.
01:01Population Zero.
01:03One day after people.
01:24On the campus of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia,
01:30there is a small X carved in stone.
01:35Buried a few feet underneath is a forgotten crypt,
01:39filled with strange relics of mankind that wait to be rediscovered.
01:44Mannequins stare with painted eyes into the dark, as if they're waiting.
01:53Waiting for people to open the nearby cans of newsreel.
01:58Waiting for human hands to open the violin case in the corner,
02:02or touch the keys of the typewriter.
02:07These mannequins stand at a bizarre crossroads between the immortal and the forgotten.
02:12Waiting to be released from one of the world's strangest rooms,
02:18a time capsule called the Crypt of Civilization.
02:24The Crypt of Civilization, according to the Guinness Book of World Records,
02:28was the first successful attempt to bury a record of our culture
02:33for future inhabitants, or visitors, to the planet Earth.
02:38Every day objects, from toys to dental floss,
02:44rest in steel cylinders filled with inert gas.
02:48Microfilms of 800 books, including the Koran and the works of Shakespeare,
02:53remain next to sticks of lipstick.
02:56Cigarette lighters, radios, the screenplay of Gone with the Wind.
03:01All objects carefully chosen to represent life in the 1930s.
03:04The Crypt was conceived in 1936 by the university's president, Thornwell Jacobs.
03:16Inspired by excavations of Egyptian burial chambers,
03:19he wanted to create a 20th century version of King Tutankhamen's tomb.
03:23The objects in the Crypt wait behind a stainless steel plate one-eighth of an inch thick,
03:34with instructions not to open the Crypt until the year 8113.
03:38The Egyptian calendar, most historians would say, begins in 4241 BC, 6,177 years that elapsed.
03:51So Dr. Jacobs, in his words, projected forward 6,177 years from 1936,
04:01and this is how he comes up with 81,13 AD.
04:05So whoever opened the Crypt would see what it was like at the midpoint of human history.
04:12But can this Crypt endure for another 6,000 years?
04:16Two days after people, all of man's attempts to preserve his legacy are in a battle against time.
04:33At Washington DC's Marine Corps War Memorial,
04:37six bronze heroes of the Second World War Battle of Iwo Jima still raise the American flag.
04:42The memorial was based on a photographic image of heroism so moving,
04:50people wanted it immortalized, not in fading celluloid, but in bronze.
04:59But with no people to remember the battle or protect the monument,
05:04how long will the Marines continue to hoist the flag?
05:08Thirty-two miles away, in Annapolis, lies the crypt of a revolutionary war hero,
05:17the naval legend John Paul Jones.
05:23But what few knew was that this ornate crypt was not Jones' first resting place.
05:32Largely forgotten after the Revolutionary War,
05:35he was buried by a few friends and left in an unmarked grave for a hundred years.
05:44In 1905, Jones' lead coffin was found and opened for an autopsy.
05:50The doctors expected to see the mocking grin of a skeleton.
05:59Instead, what they saw shocked them.
06:05Although partially decomposed,
06:07John Paul Jones was sufficiently preserved to be recognizable from 18th-century busts.
06:12How was this possible?
06:19The answer is that hoping Jones would one day be rediscovered,
06:23his friends had his coffin filled with methyl alcohol.
06:26This slowed down autolysis, which is the body breaking down itself,
06:33the cells starting to break down.
06:36When those cells break down,
06:37bacteria move in and disintegrate the cells even more.
06:41But alcohol creates a near aseptic condition,
06:44that is, it kills the bacteria.
06:45John Paul Jones was reburied with fresh methyl alcohol
06:53in a tomb in Annapolis, Maryland,
06:55a quarter of a mile from the coast.
06:58But doesn't a naval hero deserve a burial at sea?
07:01Four days after people.
07:18At Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Southern California,
07:22some Marines remain on duty.
07:25German shepherds who were part of the U.S. Marines' K-9 Corps
07:36are now without superior officers.
07:39But they remember their years of intense training.
07:44Their memory is fantastic.
07:46There's dogs that are trained to attack and find explosives,
07:50and then there's dogs that are trained to track humans and find them.
07:55They need to be able to, you know, have that drive just like a Marine will.
08:03Now, the more aggressive alpha males,
08:06uncaged when their masters vanished, go AWOL.
08:10Following orders from a new commanding officer, hunger.
08:16A German shepherd would definitely go after little animals
08:19and whatever they could eat.
08:22They are survivalists.
08:23We had one dog at the kennels once attack a snake.
08:31But outside Pendleton,
08:33the shepherds will not be the only predators.
08:37What will happen when hungry coyotes meet the last Marines?
08:46Meanwhile, some attempts to preserve man's legacy
08:49race against time by standing still.
08:54This seedy-sized object holds the key to preserving mankind's written languages.
09:01Created in 2008 by an organization called the Long Now Foundation,
09:05it is etched with microscopic-sized writings.
09:08When magnified 1,000 times,
09:11it reveals 13,000 pages of text,
09:14from vocabulary lists to Bible verses,
09:17in more than 1,500 human languages.
09:22It was named after the Rosetta Stone,
09:25an ancient artifact which enabled researchers to decode Egyptian hieroglyphics.
09:29Copies of the Rosetta Disc were sent to safe havens around the world,
09:37including the Smithsonian Institution,
09:39where thousands of other treasures are stored.
09:45Now, the lights have gone out.
09:48Can this modern Rosetta Stone
09:50actually survive?
09:58While the ancients preserved vital objects
10:01and great leaders behind walls of stone,
10:04modern office buildings of steel and glass
10:08are crypts of information.
10:11In the time of humans,
10:12a third of most office buildings
10:14were devoted to storing papers,
10:17from personnel files to government secrets.
10:20This was true from Wall Street to the City of London,
10:27where the most notable building
10:30was the 591-foot tower nicknamed the Gherkin.
10:35The Gherkin Building,
10:36called that because, of course,
10:38it looks like a pickle on end,
10:40is a very unusual building.
10:44Its 745 double layers of glass panels
10:47let in so much natural light
10:49that the cost of heating and lighting the building
10:52have been drastically reduced.
10:55It uses only about half as much energy
10:57as a conventional office building does today.
11:04Shortly after it was completed in 2003,
11:07one panel came loose
11:09and shattered over 300 feet below.
11:13And that could be a clue to its eventual demise.
11:17Although it's an extremely well-designed building,
11:21it still needs to be maintained.
11:23In the time of humans,
11:25a maintenance crew of 90
11:27kept the Gherkin in good order.
11:30In a life after people,
11:32how long before another panel falls?
11:34And then another.
11:47One week after people.
11:51There's trouble on the high seas.
11:53This cargo ship was carrying 30,000 tons of wheat.
12:00The crew has gone.
12:04But the ship is not quite abandoned.
12:11The rats have taken over.
12:13In the time of humans,
12:16ships' crews battled rats
12:17with traps and poisons.
12:21But those days are over.
12:25A large rat of 12 or 13 ounces
12:27can eat 15% of its own body weight in a day.
12:32But the rats won't just eat.
12:35They'll also breed.
12:38Female rats can have six litters in a year
12:41with perhaps a dozen rats in each litter.
12:45And at the age of only three months,
12:47the young rats are themselves ready to breed.
12:55As vermin take over the world's shipping lanes,
12:59on land,
13:00architectural wonders fall prey to hidden floors.
13:04While a strange time capsule
13:06tries to preserve the memory of man
13:08870 miles above the Earth.
13:19Six months after people.
13:22In Washington, D.C.,
13:24the bronze Iwo Jima Marines remain undamaged.
13:28In the past,
13:29the polyester flag had been subject to fading in the sun
13:32and had to be changed once a month by an honor guard.
13:36In 1961,
13:38John F. Kennedy directed that the 190-square-foot banner
13:41on the 60-foot flagpole
13:43should be flown day and night forever
13:45to help people remember
13:47the courage and sacrifice at Iwo Jima.
13:50Now, six months of sun, wind, and rain
13:56have torn the flag to shreds.
14:00And one gusty afternoon,
14:03the presidential proclamation is overridden
14:05by a harsh wind.
14:14One year after people.
14:16In just 12 months,
14:19a pair of rats can produce 2,000 offspring.
14:23The grain-greedy rats on the cargo ship
14:25have experienced a population explosion.
14:29The dark hold of the ship
14:30has become a moving wave
14:32of hungry, breeding rodents.
14:34The rats' need for half an ounce of water a day
14:37has been satisfied by rainwater.
14:40But there's a problem.
14:42With no humans to work the bilge pumps,
14:45the cargo ship is taking on water
14:47in the middle of the ocean.
14:49As seawater saturates the grain,
14:51thousands of rats flee to the upper decks.
14:54But this is one sinking ship
14:56they can't desert.
15:04Around the world,
15:07man's attempts to measure the passage of time
15:10are fading away.
15:12when the power went out,
15:16electric clocks became dark forever.
15:21The batteries in some wristwatches
15:23may last for three years or more,
15:25but they too will stop.
15:32But what about a clock
15:33that won't stop?
15:35At least not for 10,000 years.
15:42The idea for the 10,000-year clock
15:44was developed by Danny Hillis,
15:46who is one of the people behind
15:48the development of the modern computer.
15:53To create a clock
15:54that will keep accurate time
15:56for 10,000 years,
15:58Hillis designed a 60-foot-tall machine
16:00made of corrosion-resistant titanium
16:02and stainless steel.
16:07The sun will keep
16:09the mechanical clock accurate.
16:12At noon, solar heat
16:13focused through a lens
16:15makes a strip of tungsten buckle,
16:19and this motion resets the clock
16:21to exactly midday.
16:24To guarantee the precise measurement of time
16:27over 100 centuries,
16:29the clock uses a sophisticated system
16:31of levers and pins
16:32that perform binary calculations.
16:34So the 10,000-year clock
16:37is essentially
16:38the world's slowest computer,
16:39but there's nothing electronic in it.
16:42It's all mechanical.
16:51Two years after people,
16:53the coyotes that prowl
16:55the wild landscape
16:56that was once Camp Pendleton
16:58have learned to fear
16:59the strength of the last Marines.
17:04If one of our aggressive dogs
17:05came up to a coyote,
17:06they would definitely, you know,
17:07overtake it
17:08just because of the training
17:09that our dogs have,
17:10and the dog will most likely
17:11kill a coyote.
17:14Unlike most dogs
17:15kept as pets
17:16in the time of humans,
17:18many military-trained
17:20German shepherds
17:21have survived.
17:23I believe they would
17:24retain their training
17:25for a very, very long time.
17:27If they come up to a wall,
17:28they're not going to stare
17:29at the wall
17:29and go,
17:30whoo-hoo,
17:30they're going to jump
17:31over that wall,
17:32and they're going to
17:33complete the task
17:33that they need to.
17:34Meanwhile,
17:38in the open ocean,
17:39the hungry rats
17:41have turned on each other.
17:44Now,
17:44everyone is dead
17:46of starvation
17:47or cannibalism,
17:49and their bodies
17:49are food
17:50for the hungry seabirds.
18:00Five years after people,
18:02all is quiet
18:04at the world's largest library.
18:07The Library of Congress
18:08in Washington, D.C.
18:09contains nearly 142 million items
18:13on roughly 650 miles of shelves,
18:16including Matthew Brady's
18:19Civil War photographs
18:20and the personal effects
18:22that Abraham Lincoln
18:23was carrying on the day
18:24that he was shot.
18:25All of this
18:30is of little consequence
18:31to the swamp creatures
18:32now returning
18:33to this former capital of man.
18:3510 years after people.
18:49The once-manicured grounds
18:51of Oglethorpe University
18:52are choking
18:53under kudzu
18:54and wild poinsettia.
18:55But the granite building
18:59holding the crypt
19:00of civilization
19:00still stands secure.
19:05The crypt itself,
19:07surrounded by Georgia bedrock,
19:09was reinforced
19:10to survive the centuries
19:11by scientists
19:12who strengthened
19:13the cement floor
19:14of a 200-square-foot
19:16indoor swimming pool
19:17and waterproofed the walls
19:19with layers
19:20of porcelain enamel.
19:21After the crypt
19:25was sealed in 1940,
19:28some 20,000 other time capsules
19:31were buried around the world.
19:34When the publicity died,
19:36most were quickly forgotten
19:37and lost.
19:40For a while,
19:41this even happened
19:42to the crypt itself.
19:44I was an undergraduate
19:45in 1970,
19:47and this area
19:48where the crypt is
19:49was sealed off.
19:51And I saw this
19:52stainless steel door,
19:53and I saw cobwebs on it.
19:55And then I pulled off
19:56the cobwebs,
19:57and I saw this message
19:59about 81-13 AD.
20:01I had no clue
20:02what this was.
20:04The crypt was only
20:0530 years old,
20:06and it had been forgotten.
20:11Now forgotten again,
20:13nothing much has changed
20:15inside the crypt.
20:18When its creator,
20:19Dr. Thornwell Jacobs
20:20was choosing items
20:22to place inside,
20:23he included a vial of beer,
20:25specially brewed and bottled
20:26by Anheuser-Busch.
20:29Jacobs thought that
20:30even 6,000 years from now,
20:32whoever opened the crypt
20:33would probably still enjoy
20:35a foamy brew.
20:37Dr. Jacobs admitted
20:39he had no notion
20:40of the far future,
20:42but he did think
20:43that people would be
20:44drinking beer,
20:46just the way the Egyptians
20:47drank beer,
20:48and the Egyptians
20:49put earthenware jars
20:50in their pyramid chambers.
20:5220 years after people.
21:04Not all time capsules
21:06are intended to remain
21:07on Earth.
21:09In the early 21st century,
21:11Europe's KEO satellite
21:12was designed
21:13to orbit the planet,
21:14carrying a DVD
21:15with thousands
21:16of email messages
21:17from people around the world
21:18to the remote future.
21:20It's called KEO
21:21because K-E and O
21:24are sounds that are
21:24in most of the languages
21:25that humanity uses.
21:28While the crypt of civilization
21:30was inspired
21:31by the first calendar,
21:32KEO looked to an even
21:34earlier landmark
21:35of civilization.
21:37The KEO concept
21:39was that the first art
21:41on the planet
21:42was about 50,000 years ago.
21:44Therefore,
21:45the KEO is scheduled
21:46to return to Earth
21:47to be opened
21:48500 centuries
21:49after its launch,
21:51having completed
21:51almost 300 million orbits.
21:55At 870 miles high,
21:57it's out of the path
21:58of most other satellites
21:59and space debris.
22:01But while an astro accident
22:03is unlikely
22:04in the near future,
22:05what happens
22:07when it's time
22:08for KEO
22:08to plummet back to Earth?
22:10There's no need
22:14to wait
22:15to find out
22:15the fate
22:16of this haunted place.
22:18At this hospital
22:19that once housed
22:20the criminally insane,
22:23a life after people
22:24has already begun.
22:25Forty years after people.
22:38There are some places
22:40on Earth
22:40where mankind
22:41made no attempt
22:42to preserve his memories.
22:44Places so horrible
22:46it was better
22:47just to forget.
22:53One of these places
22:54still stands
22:55on a sprawling patch
22:56of land
22:57in southeast Connecticut.
23:00It's as if
23:01there was a fire drill
23:02and nobody came back.
23:04It's kind of spooky.
23:09Once,
23:10this was
23:10the Norwich Mental Hospital.
23:13It opened in 1904
23:14and amongst its patients
23:16were some of the worst
23:17criminally insane offenders
23:18in the state.
23:22Men like Ernest Skinner,
23:24a teenager
23:25who attacked
23:26his neighbour
23:26with an axe
23:27before setting him
23:28on fire.
23:29And Matthew Knarb
23:30who stabbed
23:31his 85-year-old grandmother
23:33to death
23:33with scissors
23:34because he thought
23:35she was possessed
23:36by the devil.
23:38It's no wonder then
23:39that many report
23:41strange happenings
23:42at the abandoned hospital.
23:44There's a lot of people
23:45that think
23:45these buildings
23:46are haunted.
23:46The souls here
23:49would have reason
23:50to be restless.
23:52Even for patients
23:53who weren't criminals,
23:54life at Norwich
23:55was a terrible ordeal.
23:59Back in the turn
24:00of the century,
24:00they weren't sure
24:01how to deal
24:02with mental illness.
24:04This facility
24:05utilized
24:06straitjackets
24:07and rubber rooms
24:08and all the things
24:08that people think
24:09are horrible.
24:10I would imagine
24:11the cost of treatment
24:12in the early years
24:14was very punitive.
24:16In the 1930s,
24:18Judith Riley's mother
24:19was a nurse
24:20at Norwich.
24:21Every day
24:22as she passed
24:23this building,
24:24she heard the screams
24:25of the criminally insane.
24:30It must have been
24:31very chaotic,
24:32very noisy,
24:33just nonstop.
24:40It's a very gloomy
24:42outset.
24:42The windows,
24:44first of all,
24:45consists of a grate
24:46inside,
24:47and then outside
24:48the glass,
24:49you have steel bars,
24:52and outside
24:52of the steel bars,
24:54you have a thinner grate.
24:56So there's
24:57a lot of metal
24:57between the people
25:00inside
25:00and the beautiful
25:02view outside.
25:06In the 1970s,
25:08most of Norwich's
25:09criminally insane
25:10were transferred
25:11into Connecticut's
25:12prison system.
25:13The building
25:14that once held them
25:15was abandoned
25:15to everything
25:16but nature.
25:21The vines
25:22and the trees
25:23and the shrubs
25:24infiltrate anything
25:26that has water.
25:28So if they can get
25:29to a crack
25:30in a building,
25:32they're in.
25:32That wall behind me
25:36is three bricks thick,
25:38yet a small imperfection,
25:41in this case,
25:42a missing piece
25:43of downspout,
25:44has put extra water
25:46into the bricks.
25:47During the winters here,
25:49the water freezes,
25:51expands,
25:52pushes the bricks out.
25:53More and more water
25:54gets in,
25:55and the entire wall
25:56begins to collapse.
25:57The building itself
25:59was abandoned
26:01in roughly 1970,
26:03but probably
26:05the downspout
26:06went missing
26:06about 15 years ago.
26:09It only took 15 years
26:11to do all of this damage.
26:16At its height,
26:18the Norwich Mental Hospital
26:19covered 1,000 acres
26:20with 5,000 staff
26:22and patients.
26:23The hospital
26:25had its own farm
26:27and livestock,
26:28its own power plant,
26:30cinema,
26:31bowling alley
26:32and chapel.
26:35Norwich shut down
26:36for good in 1996,
26:39but parts of the hospital
26:40had been deserted
26:41since the 1970s.
26:47By the late 1970s,
26:48when Judith Riley
26:49followed in her mother's
26:50footsteps to become
26:51a nurse at Norwich,
26:53medical practices
26:54had changed.
26:58Once popular
27:00surgical procedures
27:01like lobotomies
27:02were halted.
27:04Other controversial
27:06treatments like
27:07electroshock therapy
27:08were administered
27:09with greater care.
27:13It was done
27:14perhaps inhumanely.
27:16Now I think that
27:17people are anesthetized
27:18properly,
27:19and before
27:21it wasn't always true.
27:23so people suffered.
27:27I've heard
27:28third-hand
27:29of people
27:30that have been
27:31tortured
27:31and experimented on.
27:34No one knows
27:38all the secrets
27:39Norwich hides.
27:41Abandoned rooms
27:42like accidental
27:43time capsules
27:44are still being discovered.
27:48Here,
27:49a basement
27:49with suitcases
27:50and clothes
27:51from patients
27:51who came to Norwich
27:52many decades ago.
27:54and here,
27:56a room from the 1970s
27:59stacked high
27:59with typewriters.
28:02It was as if
28:03somebody snapped
28:04their fingers
28:05and everybody
28:05was gone.
28:10Equally eerie
28:11are the deserted tunnels
28:12that once connected
28:13every section
28:14of the hospital.
28:17They carried
28:17hot water pipes
28:18and much more.
28:21They would have
28:22to move patients
28:23around from building
28:24to building
28:25in the dead of winter
28:26or late at night.
28:29The tunnels
28:30were not always
28:31brightly lit.
28:32You had to make
28:33your way through
28:33with some caution.
28:35The patients
28:36weren't too happy.
28:38It is kind of spooky.
28:39The administration
28:42building,
28:43constructed in 1904,
28:45was finally
28:45abandoned in 1996.
28:48Dust
28:49that has blown in
28:50from the outside
28:50mixes with peeling
28:52plaster
28:52from water-soaked walls.
28:56The decay
28:57is not a straight-line
28:59linear progression.
29:00It's
29:01exponential.
29:03I was on this site
29:04six months ago
29:05and it was
29:07deplorable
29:08and falling apart.
29:09and then I was
29:09just on it
29:10recently,
29:11you know,
29:11a few weeks ago
29:12and I couldn't
29:12believe the difference.
29:18The state
29:18just closed
29:19the door
29:19and took off.
29:21It shows
29:22disrespect,
29:23I think,
29:24for the years
29:24that the people
29:25were here.
29:30Once,
29:30this was a place
29:31where people
29:32like Judith Riley
29:33hoped they could
29:33help others
29:34find their way
29:35back to society,
29:37to modern
29:37civilization.
29:39now Norwich
29:41is under the care
29:41of nature
29:42and may never
29:44be discharged.
29:55Fifty years
29:56after people,
29:58the marine German
29:59shepherds
30:00are not even
30:00a memory.
30:02Although their training
30:03helped them survive
30:04while other pets died,
30:06they could not breed
30:07amongst themselves.
30:09To prevent
30:09fraternization
30:10in the ranks,
30:11the marines
30:12spayed their female dogs.
30:14Although some shepherds
30:15mated with feral dogs,
30:17after a handful
30:18of generations,
30:19the distinctive
30:20German shepherd breed
30:21has disappeared.
30:23hundred years after people.
30:36Even towers
30:37that still stand tall,
30:39like London's
30:40gherkin building,
30:41are being stripped away.
30:42In a life
30:45after people,
30:46individual glazing
30:47panels will begin
30:48to fall out
30:49of the external skin
30:50as the effects
30:52of wind
30:53and sun
30:53and rain
30:55have an aggravating
30:56effect on the condition
30:58of the materials.
31:02Moisture slowly rusts
31:04the thin steel filing cabinets
31:06and spreads mould
31:07onto the forgotten files
31:09within.
31:10In place of filing cabinets,
31:13some humans
31:13used home safes
31:14of tempered steel
31:15to protect valuables,
31:17not just from water,
31:19but from fire.
31:23Paper burns
31:24at 451 degrees Fahrenheit.
31:27Many home fires
31:28can burn
31:29three or four times
31:30that hot.
31:32Safes could keep
31:32the interiors
31:33at 350 degrees
31:35for a while.
31:36But although man
31:37thought his precious papers
31:38would be protected
31:39from the flames,
31:41even the strongest
31:41home safes
31:42are no match
31:43for the fires
31:44that burn unchecked
31:46for days on end.
31:48It only takes
31:49two hours
31:50for the heat
31:51to begin penetrating
31:52the weakened steel
31:53and start incinerating
31:55the papers within.
32:03150 years
32:05after people,
32:06time has run out
32:08prematurely
32:09for the 10,000-year clock.
32:12But how could this happen?
32:14Because the real
32:1510,000-year clock
32:16was never completed.
32:20Right now,
32:21there is just one prototype
32:22of the 10,000-year clock.
32:24The nine-foot-tall prototype
32:26was put on display
32:27at the Science Museum
32:28in London
32:29as the year 1999
32:30changed to 2000.
32:35But humans had to wind
32:37the prototype
32:37every few months.
32:40It stopped dead
32:41in the first year
32:42after people
32:43and now lies in pieces
32:46as the stone structure
32:48around it
32:49has collapsed.
32:50had the real 10,000-year clock
32:54been completed
32:55before mankind vanished,
32:57it would have been installed
32:58in a unique home.
33:00A hollowed-out limestone mountain
33:02in Nevada,
33:0410,000 feet high
33:05and miles from civilization,
33:07where the sun would reset the clock
33:09by shining through a four-square-foot window
33:12made of sapphire.
33:13The purpose of the clock
33:16was not to tell people the time,
33:18but to get them to think
33:19about humanity's future,
33:21a future that never happened.
33:29Not far from London's Science Museum,
33:32the gherkins' joints,
33:34exposed to corrosive moisture,
33:36fail where they have
33:37the most weight to bear,
33:39the floors.
33:42Eventually,
33:43one floor
33:44could pancake
33:44onto another below.
33:50But remarkably,
33:52the diamond-shaped supports
33:53maintain the building's skeleton.
33:59The gherkin is weakened,
34:01but unlike most other skyscrapers,
34:04it still stands.
34:05For now.
34:13Three hundred years after people.
34:17Rising sea levels
34:18have thrust Maryland's tidal basin
34:21relentlessly inland
34:22to the crypt of John Paul Jones.
34:28One of the world's greatest sailors
34:31has finally received
34:32a burial at sea.
34:34For London's gherkin building,
34:41the loss of most of its windows and floors
34:43has reduced the weight load
34:45on its steel frame.
34:47Partial collapse
34:47has prevented complete destruction.
34:52But three hundred years
34:53of English weather
34:54has seeped into cracks
34:55in the structure's sealant.
34:57attacked by corrosion.
35:02The structural elements
35:03will be progressively weakened
35:04until finally,
35:07in a very extreme storm,
35:09a gust of wind
35:09will deliver
35:11the final blow.
35:13A brace buckles,
35:14triggering chain reactions
35:16of failure and fracture
35:17in the trusses
35:18until the entire
35:2030,000-tonne framework
35:22fully yields
35:23to the force of gravity.
35:25Where steel has failed,
35:35bronze survives.
35:38The Iwo Jima Marines
35:39still strain to raise a flag
35:41that has been gone
35:42for centuries.
35:45Although swamp weeds cluster,
35:48one of war's
35:49most dramatic monuments
35:50endures.
35:55As the centuries
35:56turn into millennia,
35:58nature presses its advantage
36:00even into the best
36:01protected places.
36:03Can the treasures
36:04of the crypt of civilization
36:05really be safe
36:07from destruction?
36:08500 years after people.
36:22Mankind tried to preserve
36:23its civilization
36:24in libraries.
36:27Here, the memory of the past
36:28was available to all.
36:31But libraries
36:31were always vulnerable.
36:33The original Library of Congress
36:36was burned by the British
36:37in the War of 1812.
36:40Some 3,000 books
36:41on law, economics
36:42and history
36:43were lost.
36:46Now, the dome
36:47of the Library's
36:48Jefferson Building,
36:49completed in 1897
36:51and rising 160 feet
36:53over what is now
36:54swampland,
36:55is putting too much strain
36:57on the supporting walls.
36:58Because of the way
37:01that all domes
37:02are constructed,
37:03there is a weak point
37:04at the base of the dome
37:05where the dome wants
37:05to expand.
37:07It wants to push down
37:08and expand out.
37:11The pressure becomes
37:12too great
37:13for the dome to bear.
37:15Concrete can no longer
37:16resist the greedy pull
37:17of gravity
37:18and falls
37:19in a shattering surrender.
37:212,000 years
37:35after people.
37:38Copies of the Rosetta disc,
37:39preserving 1,500
37:41human languages
37:42and dialects,
37:43still exist.
37:45Each disc
37:46was made of nickel,
37:47a metal that forms
37:48much of the core
37:49of the Earth.
37:51Nickel resists corrosion,
37:53but the texts
37:53of the disc
37:54are still vulnerable
37:55to the corruption
37:56of time.
37:59It does accumulate
38:00a kind of
38:01microscopic goo
38:02over time.
38:03It is just, you know,
38:04whatever is ambient
38:04in the air
38:05that lands on the disc.
38:07So fairly quickly,
38:08that material
38:09could build up.
38:122,000 years
38:13after people,
38:14a great deal
38:15of material
38:15has built up
38:16around one
38:17of the Rosetta discs.
38:19The Smithsonian
38:20Institution
38:21itself.
38:30The 28th of May,
38:3381, 13.
38:35Time for the crypt
38:36of civilization
38:37to be opened.
38:39But it has long
38:40been buried
38:40by the collapse
38:41of the building
38:42around it,
38:42which now lies
38:43beneath a blanket
38:44of grass
38:45and trees.
38:46outside the crypt,
38:50mold and plants
38:51have pushed in
38:52through broken windows.
38:54Pressure from above
38:55has cracked
38:56the crypt walls.
38:58Water and dank air
38:59have seized the opportunity
39:00and invaded.
39:05Metal corroded
39:06and rusted.
39:08The beer,
39:10which long ago
39:10went flat,
39:11then turned
39:12and soured.
39:13And moisture
39:15seeped into the
39:15plaster skins
39:16of the mannequins,
39:17oxidizing and cracking
39:19the idealized images
39:20of a lost humanity.
39:2250,000 years
39:33after people.
39:34As planned
39:36500 centuries earlier,
39:38the Keo
39:38satellite's orbit
39:39decays.
39:40On the way down,
39:42it's hit
39:43by micrometeorites
39:45and tiny fragments
39:46from other
39:47ancient satellites.
39:49But the Keo
39:50is prepared for this.
39:52The basic idea
39:54of the design
39:55is to have
39:55concentric spheres
39:56of different materials,
39:58titanium,
39:59aluminum,
40:00some Kevlar,
40:01like multiple
40:02thermos bottles
40:03within itself,
40:04and then the payload
40:05is inside that.
40:06The Keo,
40:07laden with messages
40:08from the 21st century,
40:10re-enters the atmosphere
40:11intact,
40:13with sunlight
40:13gleaming off its wings.
40:15The Keo satellite's
40:16wings,
40:17they will be shiny,
40:18and the hopes are
40:19that anybody left
40:20on the planet
40:21could look up
40:22and see these
40:22shiny glints
40:23coming by
40:24and hopefully watch
40:25where it's going to land.
40:26But if nobody's there
40:27to see that,
40:27then it's not going to be
40:28a very useful alert system,
40:30will it?
40:34Two-thirds of the Earth
40:35is water,
40:36and that's probably
40:37where the Keo
40:38will end its mission.
40:40In the place
40:41where life began.
40:45Now sealed for eternity
40:47in the blue crypt
40:48of the sea,
40:49the 50,000-year-old
40:51messages wait
40:51for the future.
40:53Why do we want to take
41:00stuff from today
41:02and put it in a box
41:03and have people
41:04dig it up in the future
41:05and try to figure out
41:06what it is?
41:08I personally think
41:09that it's sort of
41:10our need to connect
41:11ourselves to humanity's
41:13future forever.
41:14You know,
41:14we really want to feel
41:15like we were important
41:16or a part of humanity.
41:18every crypt of civilization
41:21assumes that someone
41:23will be there
41:24on the other side
41:25of the Valley of Time.
41:29While some vessels
41:30won't survive the journey,
41:33each message to the future
41:34is a gift of hope,
41:36even in a life
41:39after people.
41:40of the Valley of Time
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