Galan Database

The Galan Database is what has been called a hostile correspondence course. It contains invaluable data about advanced galactic technology, but coded in such a way as to hint, but not reveal things until you can prove you have at least a clue as to how it works. The Database has information on every science and knowledge of the aliens in the Galaxy in the vicinity of Earth.
The Database proper is 367 DVD ROM disks, 1651.5 gigabytes of information. When it was made this was a massive amount of data, any current hard drive under 100 bucks that can't tuck it in a corner is not worth the money. The disks were originally stored at the Warp Drive Project and quickly copied and recopied. They have and will disseminate the database as much as possible understood or not. Their web server has the entire database on file for download. The only thing required is that any knowledge gained from the Database be shared in the public domain. The whole of the Database and its contents are declared public domain and open source. 
So far we have wrenched the knowledge of warp drives, impulse drives and reactors, Krellite cells, phasers, anti-gravity, force fields, and carniculture. Medical science has the beginnings of Human regeneration.
==Current Status==
Attempts have been made to change the open status of the Database. Senator Mary Porcrin (TR) North Dakota agitates constantly to get the Galan database declared a matter of national security. Senator Joe Finken (TB) of Minnesota keeps asking her if she would like to include the wetness of water and the color of the sky in that bill.
So far the rigorously open nature of the Warp Drive Project has worked against this. No one wants to find themselves cut off from the goodies, and thus fights any attempt by anyone to grab a piece solely for themselves. The very nature of the distribution assures that even if it was declared secret it could not be secured. The Galan Database is on every geek hard drive in the world. Yes this does make some people crazy. A concerted effort to destroy the Database would fail so badly trying isn't even worth the gelt. The nature of the monkey barrel has been perverted to keep the database open.
The rigorousness of the open source nature of the database has been tested. Three patents have been denied when it was proven that the core knowledge came off the Galan Database.
It has been learned that the Maoist Government of China had planed to steal the Galan Database. They stopped when it was found how common the actual data was. They did run their own project, of a closed and secret nature. the Chinese Empire and several of the successor states are now part of the Corps of Discovery.
The Corps of Discovery is now the "official" home of the Galan Database. The information is housed on several official mirror servers across the Earth. The Corps of Discovery has several copies backed up and hidden in creative places including we are told sapphire and gold optical disks. 
The original disks have been distributed to museums across the Earth. Although the information they hold is everywhere now, and the disks themselves nothing but locally sourced polycarbonate DVD-R disks, they are some of the most important historical documents in the history of Earth. 
See: Technology
Category:Technology
Category:Aliens
Category:Intangibles
Category:Culture
Category:Ane