Colbert DNA Headed Into Space
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Should this world ever cease to exist, Stephen Colbert will live on.
The comedian’s DNA will be digitized and sent to the International Space Station, Comedy Central announced Monday. In October, a video game designer, Richard Garriott, will travel to the station and deposit Mr. Colbert’s genes for an “Immortality Drive.”
“I am thrilled to have my DNA shot into space, as this brings me one step closer to my lifelong dream of being the baby at the end of 2001,” Mr. Colbert said in a statement, referring to the 1968 landmark science-fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Mr. Garriott, one of few private citizens to travel into space, is collecting material for a time capsule of human DNA, a history of humanity’s greatest achievements, and personal messages.
The host of “The Colbert Report” will essentially be preserved so that aliens can clone him.
“In the unlikely event that Earth and humanity are destroyed, mankind can be resurrected with Stephen Colbert’s DNA,” Mr. Garriott said in a statement.
