message in a bottle

And don't forget...

Although this week you will not be quoting/documenting lines from stories poems, etc. your posting should be around 300+ words and will be evaluated like an in-class essay often assigned in traditional classes. Responses should be about 200+ words each, and must add examples and ideas to the dicusssion. You will not earn points for casual chat

Reminder it is possible to earn a "C" (up to 15 points) with a solid posting and just one responses to other items on the board, bur if you wish to earn a higher score, be sure you have more responses on the board. To earn a full 20/20, you need two substantive responses along with a well-developed and supported posting.

This week you are going to create a time capsule that will either be sealed beneath _____ (you get to name the building it will be buried under and explain why), OR it will be placed in a sattelite and sent off into deep space. In either case, the time capsule will not be opened (or discovered by aliens) for 3,000 years (that's the 51st century!).

Your goal is to try to let future generations (or other beings) understand what we were like here in the 21st century on the planet Earth. And you are allowed to put absolutely anything you like into the time capsule as long as it would fit in a space about the size of an airplane carry-on bag (yes, that varies a little by airline, but it is typically 9" X 14" X 22" -- pretty close to a typical shopping bag you would get at the grocery store). That is actually pretty large for a time capsule, but you will likely fill it fast). Of course you can reduce size by making things (songs, movies, books) digital, but keep in mind in the 51st century or in a different star system, that technology is going to be WAY out of date and alien), so do put some THING things in there as well.

Again, you may put anything you like in there, but you will need to:

I do recommend a wide range of images, sounds, objects--things that will not spoil, of course.

Responses this week will be a little different

For responses, imagine you are an archeologist in the 51st centure (or a being from another planet). You have opened this time capsule. What does it tell you about the 21st century (if you can even access the information inside)? What information will you liikely NOT be able to access and why? What might you MIS-understand and why? What false impressions might you have and why? You might also include some thoughts on what you would have liked to see in the capsule (and how that would tell you a lot more about folks on Earth in the 21st century).

To put this part of the discussion in perspective, think BACKWARDS 3,000 years. That's nearly 1000 years B.C.E. One reason we actually (think we) understand the past is that technology changed very slowly until the past few-hundred years, accellerating amazingly-quickly in just the past fifty years. We still have things like shovels and hammers, but will we have Sony game consoles and Cell phones even 100 years from now?

Be thoughtful and try to have some fun with this :)