Suppose we are at the brink of a nuclear war between two major nation-states. These states have many thousands of warheads and the war is likely to lead to a nuclear winter that would kill most of those who survived the initial bombings. However, let's assume that some people are able to survive.
Suppose some country is concerned with ensuring that the surviving few are able to preserve a good portion the world's scientific heritage and technological capabilities. It is willing to expend quite a bit of resources to do this. What should it do?
Some ideas I've had are the following:
Build large nuclear bunkers and pay many scientists who have very diverse and far-ranging research interests to live in nuclear bunkers. They can leave, but only if replaced with other scientists, so that at any point in time, some scientists will be protected. Questions: what kind of scientists would be best? Which countries should these bunkers be located in?
Pay non-scientists to sit in bunkers too. Society is more resilient to decline if many survive. These people would be trained in developing food sourcing for during the nuclear winter, and possibly with the job of restoring electricity grids and other critical national infrastructure systems. Question: what training would these non-scientists need?
Create data centers that archive much of the internet including scientific publications. These data centers would have to be secured and be supplied with some energy supply, such from as geothermal sources (sunlight wouldnt do, given a nuclear winter). Question: How could one best store archive what's on the internet?