Immortality Drive

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The Immortality Drive is a large memory device which was taken to the International Space Station in a Soyuz spacecraft on October 12, 2008. The Immortality Drive contains fully digitized DNA sequences of a select group of humans, such as physicist Stephen Hawking, comedian and talk show host Stephen Colbert, Playboy model Jo Garcia, game designer Richard Garriott, [1] fantasy authors Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman, pro wrestler Matt Morgan, and athlete Lance Armstrong. [2] [3] The microchip also contains a copy of George's Secret Key to the Universe , a 2007 children's book authored by Stephen Hawking and his daughter, Lucy.

The intent of the Immortality Drive is to preserve human DNA in a time capsule, in case some global cataclysm should occur on Earth.

The Immortality Drive was featured in History Channel's Life After People , first-season episode "The Bodies Left Behind".

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References

  1. Peter Leonard for The Associated Press (October 12, 2008). "US game designer blasts into space with DNA cargo". USA Today . Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  2. Immortality Drive from Gender and Technology 2009
  3. Immortality Drive: Stephen Colbert to have his DNA sent to space from Welt Online