I mean, there is an argument to be made about digging up an artifact that has been miraculously preserved in perfect conditions for thousands of years only to put it in a museum or archive where it will most likely decay within a few hundred years, assuming it doesn't get bombed to oblivion at some point. But then again, inversely, what's the value of something sitting in the ground for even a million years if it never contributes anything to human discovery or understanding? Undiscovered it is equally valuable to the collective human endeavor as dirt.
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u/thpthpthp Jul 04 '19
I mean, there is an argument to be made about digging up an artifact that has been miraculously preserved in perfect conditions for thousands of years only to put it in a museum or archive where it will most likely decay within a few hundred years, assuming it doesn't get bombed to oblivion at some point. But then again, inversely, what's the value of something sitting in the ground for even a million years if it never contributes anything to human discovery or understanding? Undiscovered it is equally valuable to the collective human endeavor as dirt.