The article analyzes the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) as a specific security technology created to deal with the ecological threat of biodiversity loss. Built in 2008 inside the Arctic Circle, the SGSV serves as a backup for 1,700 agricultural gene banks around the world. If seed collections are lost due to natural disasters or human error, the gene banks can request copies of their varieties from Svalbard and restore their collections to continue the endeavour of plant breeding. The article focuses on the particular temporal politics expressed in the SGSV. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s reflections on time, it is argued that the SGSV opens up the possibility of reversing events by expanding the duration of the present. By separating seeds from their ecological connections on the one hand and controlling their metabolic processes through the use of cold on the other, an enduring temporal zone is created that allows modern society to control the unpredictable and irreversible dynamics of life and undo its emergent effects. The SGSV therefore materializes what is herein called the politics of reversibility.

中文翻译：

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过去不会开始：冷冻的种子、延长的礼物和可逆的政治

本文将斯瓦尔巴全球种子库 (SGSV) 分析为一种特定的安全技术，旨在应对生物多样性丧失的生态威胁。SGSV 于 2008 年在北极圈内建成，作为全球 1,700 个农业基因库的备份。如果由于自然灾害或人为错误导致种子收藏丢失，基因库可以向斯瓦尔巴群岛索取其品种的副本并恢复其收藏以继续进行植物育种工作。这篇文章侧重于 SGSV 中表达的特定时间政治。借鉴 Niklas Luhmann 对时间的反思，有人认为 SGSV 通过扩大现在的持续时间开辟了逆转事件的可能性。一方面将种子与其生态联系分开，另一方面通过使用冷气来控制它们的代谢过程，从而创造了一个持久的时间带，使现代社会能够控制不可预测和不可逆转的生命动态，并消除其产生的影响。因此，SGSV 实现了这里所谓的可逆性政治。