A complete open-source system of laser-engraver-ready titanium plate designs for time capsules intended to preserve human knowledge through catastrophic events — readable by a finder 200 to 2,000 years from now with no shared language or cultural context.
Buy it · Build it · Bury it · For someone you will never meet
"This was made for you, freely, by people who cared about the future. Use it together. Build something better. Make more capsules for others."
The Bridge Phrase — engraved on every plate, in every language
The Plates
The Patient Message
Each plate is a laser-engraver-ready SVG file, 480×680px portrait format, designed for titanium or fired ceramic. Every plate uses only black strokes — no fills, no color — optimized for maximum legibility at any scale and any future reading technology from unaided eye to microscope.
The complete set spans eleven knowledge plates covering survival through metaphysics, and four plates per language across fifty human languages — 214 plates total plus analog audio discs.
258 of 214 plates complete · 55 of 50 language series
Each language series also has four alternate draft plates pairing it with a geographically nearby secondary language (~500 mi radius), showing structural contrast between neighboring writing traditions.
Any plate set fits any container. The tiers describe survivability and cost, not content. From a clay jar fired with a wood fire to a granite vault — every design is fully documented and free to build.
Tier 0
Fired Ceramic + Pitch
$10 – $30
Clay, fire, and pine pitch only
No industrial materials required
Buildable post-catastrophe
Dead Sea Scroll precedent: 2,000 years
Design target 500 – 2,000 years
Tier A
HDPE Pipe
$75 – $150
Hardware store build, threaded or fusion cap
No chlorine — cannot outgas acid onto the contents
Silica gel + oxygen absorbers
Maximum household distribution
Design target 100+ years
Tier B
Titanium Sphere
$350 – $600
Grade 2 CP titanium
Argon atmosphere fill
Welded closure — no elastomer to fail
The portable premium node
Design target 10,000+ years
Tier C
Ocean Capsule
$400 – $900
HDPE outer hull, titanium pressure vessel
Rated to 600 atm / ~6,000 m
Titanium is inert in seawater — no plating needed
Check maritime law before any deposition
Design target 2,000+ years at depth
Tier D
Hastelloy C-276
$600 – $1,200
Superalloy for reducing-acid environments
Volcanic, sulfurous, industrial soils
Beats titanium in reducing acids; titanium wins in oxidising chlorides
Specialist tier — most sites will not need it
Design target 10,000+ years
Tier E
Granite Vault
$500 – $1,500
Carved granite body, bentonite clay buffer
Welded titanium vessel — no gasket to fail
Fixed institutional archive, not portable
Inscribe the bridge phrase in the stone
Design target 10,000+ years
Tier F
Mountain Archive
$2,000+
Dry cave or lava tube
Natural environmental sealing
Community maintenance agreement
GPS + surface marker required
Design target As long as the site holds
These are intended service lives, based on material behaviour and archaeological precedent. They are design targets — not tested, measured, or warranted performance.
· · ·
The Ten Concords
Universal Principles
Distilled from the convergence points of human civilizations across all recorded history. These are points of agreement, not imposition — discovered independently by people who had no contact with each other, across millennia. Their convergence is the evidence for their validity.
I
Every person has inherent worth.
II
Measure civilization by its most vulnerable.
III
The living world is not a resource.
IV
Knowledge is a commons.
V
Power must be held lightly.
VI
Cooperation is stronger than competition.
VII
The future has no voice. Speak for it.
VIII
Beauty is not decoration.
IX
Grief is the price of love. Pay it.
X
You are not the first. You will not be the last.
· · ·
Free Downloads
Everything Is Free
Every file in this project is released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Copy them. Translate them. Improve them. Distribute them to everyone. No permission needed. No registration. No cost. The knowledge belongs to whoever finds it.
