Thousands is not that difficult. Paper lasts for thousands of years under the right conditions. Millions is a whole different game. That's significantly longer than humanity has existed It's not just about the material, it's also about not losing the ability to read the contents. There are texts less than 5000 years old whoch we cannot read anymore.
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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Just make it binary representations of 3D, engraved in stone.
/j
Paper lasts for thousands of years under the right conditions.
How do you maintain the right conditions for thousands of years?
Caves.
Pyramids too maybe. Disks in a lead or titanium chest in a pyramid.
Yes. It's called a stone tablet.
iPad 200 BC
Silica is expected to survive for thousands of years in nearly any temperature, humidity, and chemical environment
Thousands of years is very different than 1 million years.
There’s nothing that can stick around 1 million years.
The 3rd installment of the 3 body problem touches on this subject.
nothing that can stick around 1 million years
Universe: ehem
Explain
Even things that seem like they won’t ever change don’t last. Erosion, tectonic plate movement, natural decay of atoms.
Even giant letters written inside of a mountain won’t last.
Best you can do is create a simple structure that takes intelligence to create with the only purpose being to show that you once existed.
Rocks exist that are billions of years old, so clearly some things can survive for longer than a million years. And if we don't restrict ourselves to the Earth, something in a high heliocentric orbit could last many billions or perhaps even trillions of years.
True but rocks change over time constantly.
Giant letters on the face of the moon!
CHA
There’s nothing that can stick around 1 million years
See the sci tech link I posted