Stephen Hawking is one of humanity’s designated survivors

You may be familiar with the term "designated survivor" from the ABC television series, Designated Survivor, in which — and this is a real thing — one member of the President's Cabinet is required to be physically far away from a gathering of the President, VP, and Cabinet leaders during certain events in case of some unforeseen catastrophe.

You may not have known that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, was the designated survivor during President Trump's 2018 State of the Union Address. You also may not have known that the human race has its own designated survivor program.

In 2008, game developer Richard Garriot developed the "Immortality Drive," a sort of digital time capsule on the International Space Station that contains the DNA and genetic codes of a handful of humans. Think of it as a kind of backup disk in case of worldwide calamity. If humans were to be wiped out, this drive exists as a source code for rebooting humanity.

"The Immortality Drive is a digital archive of mankind's greatest achievements and a snapshot of humanity itself," Garriot says. "This archive will be stored on the International Space Station to serve as a remote "offsite backup" of humanity, should we suffer a disastrous fate."

Now, obviously, Stephen Hawking isn't going to be held on the International Space Station forever. But just because he died doesn't mean he can't be a blueprint for the next iteration of life on Earth. His genetic code will live forever, along with a few others, as one of humanity's designated survivors.

Comedian Stephen Colbert, legendary television writer Melvyn B. Sherer, Businessmen Kevin Rose and Tim Draper, Pro Wrestler Matt Morgan, athlete Lance Armstrong, and Playboy model Jo Garcia join a lot of sci-fi/fantasy and TV writers in the Immortality Drive.

At this point, you might be worried that Hawking will be overlooked by potential alien reboots in favor of making a species of WWE Superstars, adult models, or Dungeons and Dragons writers.

But, for a few reasons, there's no cause for concern. First and foremost, you'll be dead. Secondly, if superintelligent aliens do come to Earth, find the Immortality Drive, and reboot the human race, Hawking himself believed their first instinct would be to simply enslave us.

And finally, as the series Life After People predicts, the International Space Station will come crashing into Earth within three years of the end of life on Earth. So, either hope the DNA lands in some kind of primordial ooze or that aliens make our fantasy-fun-world full of TV writers as soon as possible.