If You Had Something to Say to Future Generations...? 124
gauthier-s asks: "KEO is a project that intends to place a geostationary satellite in orbit that will keep our messages for future generations (up to 50k years after our current existence) as a 'souvenir of Humanity'. Everyone is invited to submit his own message to future civilizations, since it costs nothing to do so. It has been said that any message submitted will be included without any censorship. These messages will be stored for the long trip onto glass disc, which will hopefully be readable by whatever future technology exists when it is recovered. Submissions are possible until December 31, 2002, so take the time to think about your message!" If you feel inclined to share, what kind of message would you leave to the future children of Earth?
Message (Score:4, Funny)
If you feel inclined to share, what kind of message would you leave to the future children of Earth?
Don't blame me, I voted for Nader.
Re:Message (Score:3, Funny)
Like they said Vonnegut said (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Like they said Vonnegut said (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Like they said Vonnegut said (Score:1)
And... (Score:2)
There is no sex in the Champagne Room.
Oh, there's *champagne* in the Champagne Room; but you don't want champagne, you want sex...
Re:Like they said Vonnegut said (Score:1)
Declaration of Ind. and Constitution... (Score:2)
First order of business for dictator: (Score:2)
This is not a place of honor. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This is not a place of honor. (Score:1)
Re:This is not a place of honor. (Score:3, Funny)
Of course you are doing so much better with your energy consumption. What percentage of E=mc^2 are you getting?
-Sean
Re:This is not a place of honor. (Score:2)
Advice... (Score:3, Funny)
> leave to the future children of Earth?
"Always...no, never...forget to check your references."
640K (Score:2, Funny)
Re:640K (Score:1)
Slashdot requires you to wait 20 seconds between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment.
It's been 19 seconds since you hit 'reply'!
Ok, (Score:5, Funny)
If you have invented time travel and are ever around my area/time can I catch a lift?
Imagine A (Score:1)
PS (Score:1)
Dear children of the future: (Score:2)
of course (Score:5, Funny)
ATTENTION: Please read carefully before opening this geostationary satellite. The individual or entity opening this satellite (the "future generation") agrees to be bound by the terms of this license. If you open this satellite and do not agree to the terms of this license, do not use the glass disc contained within and promptly return the satellite unopened to its geosynchronous orbit.
No Censorship? Ha! (Score:1)
Re:No Censorship? Ha! (Score:1)
More useful would be images. Or some series of images made that could be made into motion pictures (anybody remember that story by A.C. Clarke?
I can't make up my mind... (Score:1)
From Slashdot for Humanity.... (Score:2)
Re:From Slashdot for Humanity.... (Score:1)
Well you can try for "Last Post" at 11:59PM on December 31st... =D
Re:From Slashdot for Humanity.... (Score:1)
It's a useless effort (Score:5, Insightful)
Just look at spain and morocco. They're getting close to a war over some stupid deserted islands that no one ever heard about.Morocco just invaded one of them, and there's nothing there but rocks and sand, what's the point?
You might as well send them "frosty piss" and "AYB" messages. They'll shit on them.
Re:It's a useless effort (Score:3, Funny)
You're missing the point. You have to prefix it with 'I'm probably gonna get modded down for this, but...'
Re:It's a useless effort (Score:2)
What they probably *will* be interested in will be the historic value of what thousands of normal people 50k years ago had to say.
As for the Bible, half it's problem is the advice is either useless, counter-productive, out of context, or common sense. Calling it "the most insightful advice possible" is rather laughable IMO.
Anyway, in 50k years, the human race will hopefully have changed a lot. We should have developed a post-scarcity civilization and have a mature social, political and economic system. If not, well, damnit, I wanna know WHY not.
Re:It's a useless effort (Score:1)
Bickering corner thread: The Bible[TM] (Score:1)
Do I need to read the Bible to realise it's wrong to kill someone* or sleep with someone other than my wife*, not steal*, not commit thoughtcrime*, to love my neighbour and my enemy*, to turn the other cheek*, or that if I ever get the chance, it's a good idea to flood the planet and only tell people I like that they should prepare?
No, I don't think so*. Not that my opinions on the Bible or religion are really up for discussion*
* Various exceptions excluded
Re:It's a useless effort (Score:1)
You're being overly optimistic and giving people too much credit. Really. Most of the problems in the world stem from people repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
genetic manipulation. (Score:1)
It wouldn't require genetic manipulation to get people to learn from one another, but it would require genetic manipulation to remove all the animal instincts, we are afterall barbaric animals at hart (or at least 99.9% of us).
There is very little you can do to 'teach' most people, there just not made that way.
Most pepole cant understand the kind of philosiphy required to implement such a utopia, this can be expressed as a mild autism, when compaired to those who can understand.
1: autistic ( you can-not understand that other people may see things differently from you)
2: autistic-normal ( the double bluff, you cannot understand that someone might know what your thinking)
3: normal ( unable to fully comprehend the double bluff (in some circumstances nothing matters))
4: Full realisation ( we and everything around us are all made of star dust, I am no different from the air that I breath)
Re:It's a useless effort (Score:1, Troll)
Are you kidding? The bible is a tuned manipulation device, presented as 'The Wisdom of God' but really the embodiment of the church's effort to control the masses.
Why th e *&*Q!@( would I care about the hallucinations contained in a work of fiction? What you Jews/Christians/Muslims fail to understand is that the bible is not an absolute re-telling of history. It is not an academic account of the last 4000 years. It is a tool, a collection of stories used to manipulate people, cleverly crafted as Indisputable Fact.
If there is anything I would tell future generations:
There is NO All-powerfull God. Take responsibilty for yourselves and one-another. You are all in absolute control over what your future will bring.
Re:It's a useless effort (Score:1)
Advice to the future (Score:2)
-Sean
5 words (Score:5, Funny)
Re:5 words (Score:2)
"Dude, where's my car!?"
Re:5 words (Score:2)
Re:5 words (Score:2, Funny)
What about great literature? (Score:1)
Re:What about great literature? (Score:1)
Envisioning Dystopia... (Score:1)
You know, since their annoying yet catchy music has probably burned itself into our DNA and our descendents will all be walking around in girly-boy outfits with atrocious haircuts and humming poorly-written ballads in harmony...
No, seriously. Am I the only one who sees this?
(As an aside, I always wanted to do a First Person Shooter where the premise is, a guy is given the opportunity to visit the future, and when he returns, he has this crazed look in his eye, and he gasps, "Kill them! We have to kill them NOW! While we still have a fighting chance! For the LOVE of GOD, KILL ALL THE BOYBANDS NOW!!!" etc. etc.)
Re:Envisioning Dystopia... (Score:1)
Dupe the Voyagers (Score:2)
I wonder why they picked 50,000 years. I mean, you might as well say 80 gadzillion years. Why not just say "we'll do our best to make it last forever?"
Re:Dupe the Voyagers (Score:1)
Nothing lasts forever, not even glass discs. Entropy and all that, also causes your razor blades to become dull by themselves. I guess they think the glass disc would still be readable after 50K years.
Re:Dupe the Voyagers (Score:2)
Now that I think of it, they should put in some honey. I know that honey has been dug up from egyptian tombs, and was still good. Who knows, maybe it'll last 50k years?
Re:Dupe the Voyagers (Score:1)
True, but:
- modern day glass may have better properties than colonial glass
- this thing is going to be put on a satellite orbiting the earth. The zero gravity should help that problem.
Come to think of it: it may be a bigger challenge to keep the satellite's orbit stable for 50,000 years.
Re:Dupe the Voyagers (Score:2)
From Urban Legends.com [urbanlegends.com]: "Glass" may not survive 50k years, but it won't be because it sagged.
Re:Dupe the Voyagers (Score:1)
> technically a liquid. Look at windows in colonial
> houses; their bottom is thicker than their top.
Think "Zero-G".
Re:Dupe the Voyagers (Score:1)
There are some older places (100-200 y.o.) that have the multi-pane glass arranged so that the thickest edge is always towards the outside of the frame (top row, thick on top... right column, thick on the right edge). It had an interesting effect (due to the slight warp in the glass...
Duh (Score:2)
That way, the people of the future don't
Re:Dupe the Voyagers (Score:1)
From the KEO faq [keo.org]:
"Why 50,000 years?
50,000 years is the mirror date to a milestone in the evolution of our species: the first traces of Art reveal the human capacity for abstract thought and symbolic expression.
50,000 years is distance in time so compelling that it forces us to shed our worries and daily routine and puts us each on an equal footing, inviting us to bask in our thoughts, intuitions and deepest convictions...
However 50,000 years only represent 1% of the evolution of the human species that have appeared on Earth some 5 million years ago.
It is also the concept of time and distance that will give our treasures a genuine archeological value because it is very probable that definitive traces of the activities of the Man of today will be in turn recovered by the Man of tomorrow."
Three Little Sentences (Score:3, Funny)
2. Oooo, good idea, boss!
3. It was like that when I got here.
--Homer
Native perl DeCSS (Score:3, Funny)
Great... (Score:2)
Poor things won't know what to make of the ASCII goastse.cx posts though.
How about (Score:2, Interesting)
Okay, so I didn't read the article... (Score:3, Insightful)
But 50,000 years seems a bit too long.
Why?
The assumption is that our technology will continue to advance the farther we travel into the future.
But, consider _The Time Machine_ by H.G. Wells. When the main character traveled far enough into the future, eventually we reversed this trend, evolved into two separate species, and ran around in happiness about all the fruit we've found (okay...so its been a while since I read the book).
And I think Wells has this point right on. Look around us, people. If you haven't noticed, the renaissance is over. We've already passed our Great Enlightenment. And we've already passed our technological maturity.
Scientists already think that we pretty much know most of what there is to know (I read this somewhere, not sure where). Even if you're a programmer, what else is new or interesting to program? (I am seriously curious about this, but probably off-topic)
At what point does going to school mean learning that any new idea you have has already been discoved and written about in depth?
And at what point are we running around naked, glad at being so happy eating our yummy fruit, completely oblivious about the messages contained in a dark satellite, silently circling around the earth?
Re:Okay, so I didn't read the article... (Score:1)
Re:Okay, so I didn't read the article... (Score:1)
Ah yes, I think Stephen Hawking is one of them. Well, I remember reading this statement made by Lord Kelvin around 1900 or so, where he said the same thing: "Physics is more or less complete. There are only two small problems left to be solved". Or something like that, forgive me for not quoting literally. Anyhow, one of the small problems led to the theory of relativity, the other to quantum mechanics.
In the late 1800s... (Score:2)
Message (Score:2, Funny)
ASCII art of all the great paintings. (Score:2)
Here's an example:Mona Lisa [totalise.co.uk]
and one in color... html coloring.
Some dog [cavallo2000.com]
Time Shards (Score:2, Interesting)
Spoiler Warning
Don't read on if you think you want to read the story. The following spoils it a bit. However, it is essential to illustrate my point.
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The story is about retrieving information from pottery. The idea is to restore the sounds that were around when people were making pottery centuries ago. I read somewhere that this was based on actual serious research.
Anyhow, the scientists succeed, but are disappointed by what they can retrieve: middle-agers shouting warnings into the pot not to walk on this and this guy's land, because the sheep will get sick, and other nonsense like that.
At the same time some other scientists are preparing a time capsule for the benefit of future generations. The conclusion of the story is: "what makes us think we are doing a better job than the people from the middle ages?"
I guess the same applies here: even if we would filter out all the crap ("l33t hax0rz in sp33z!"), are people really going to give a damn in 50K years?
Re:Time Shards (Score:1)
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair (Score:2)
Re:Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair (Score:2)
Baffling (Score:1)
Future generations will be quite confused when most of the comments sent to space consist of 'first posts', just like this article.. along with many other comments pointing this fact out.
What would I say? (Score:1)
These backdoors had belonged to us.
Sorry (Score:2, Funny)
It's not our fault! (Score:2)
what else will be in the launched? (Score:1)
If I was them in 50,000 years...
Actually, people in 500-1000 years are going to go up there and remove all the stinking satellites in orbit because they will interfere with starship lauches.
And they probably would laugh their head off finding our pathetic attempt at imparting wisdom from the distant past, and yet be not amused at all by our propensity to put junk in space for no other reason than to stroke our own egos...
The point is that there's a marketing ploy somewhere. Someone is selling movie tickets, sodas, or cars behind this one...
repeat after me: "I am a victim of marketing"
One word (Score:1)
42!
What I'd Say: (Score:1)
Words to live by... (Score:2)
As every interplanetary hitchhiker knows... (Score:1)
Apology (Score:2)
That should pretty much cover everything.
What i would say.. or will say. (Score:1)
1) S'long and thanks for all the fish!
2) LOOK! BEHIND YOU!
3) NI!
and
4) Bond, James Bond
Data formats,etc.. (Score:2)
all they need. (Score:1)
and the rules of major league baseball.
Has already been said: (Score:2)
-- Socrates
What I'd say (Score:1)
GET OFF MY LAWN!
To the programmers of the future... (Score:1)
Re:To the programmers of the future... (Score:1)
"Sorry about the mess. Fix it."
What most of it will be... (Score:2)
To all those working on Y10K (Score:1)
where ever you go... (Score:1)
Only one Word (Score:1)
"... Some 50,000 years later it will return to earth, intact,
I have only one word
"DUCK!"
The two most important things: (Score:1)
DON'T PANIC! (Score:2)
Maybe they will understand this.. (Score:1)
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
I would say... (Score:1)
Um wait... what was my first point?
message (Score:2)
How will they translate the messages? (Score:1)
Add to that the problem of human evolution. Modern humans have only been around for 20000 years. We may not look or act the same, or even be here 50000 years from now. We're long overdue for an asteroid impact, ice age, or other disaster. Any such event could cause the evolution of species on Earth to change significantly. Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I really don't think we'll be here 50000 years from now, unless we get off our butts and colonize space. Then we at least have a chance of surviving long enough to be around to read these messages 50000 years from now.
That said, I'll probably leave a message anyway. Who knows? Maybe some future historian will have remembered the languages of the twenty-first century and will be able to read it. It would be cool to think I might be able to rant that far into the future.
message to future gens (Score:1)
Re:My message (Score:1)