Influenced by THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, what would you put into a hermetically sealed time-capsule about the size of the typical microwave oven, to be discovered in the far future? Where would you bury it?

I would put in this:

dandelion:
Come on... My sleepy headed web maker (after his college exams) hasn't posted the Bradbury | Darabont pictures as of this hour yet. And yet.. YOU know how to post a picture...but I can't grasp your instructions that you gave earlier.
How about trying it just...one more time, dandelion... (unless my web maker has gotten around to it today, Saturday)...then we can twist our brain over this another time...

You know, when I was in fourth grade, my class did something like that, for the year 2010.

What we did was put in a bunch of crap about the Pearl harbor bombing. Which I thought then and now is hilariouse. In 2010, theres going to be a bunch of fourth graders getting told that Pearl Harbor happened in 1992.

I can't believe the teacher let us do something that dumb.

But if I was going to make a time capsule for the future, I'd put something like a can of beer, a pack of cigarettes. Maybe a few soup can wrappers. Oh, and a magazine. Because these little, this commercial art are true signs of the times.

My history teacher gave us the assignment in 9th grade, I guess we're a bit behind out here in Ca.
If and when mine was ever discovered, it's possible the discoverers wouldn't be able to read any of our present languages. I'd include preschool books, the kind with a picture and the word under it, or perhaps some kind of illustrated dictionary. Maybe a Fisher-Price turntable and viewmaster, too.

How about some music? Put your (burned) favorite cd and bury it. Then, take it out 30 years from now. Not only will you cringe at the horrible music that you've saved, but also at the troglodyte technology we're all currently using.
Cheers, Translator

X.T.C. will sound just as brilliant in 30 years, the band, not the drug.

Time capsule to be opened in 2104:

� A list of ten inventions thought to be invented by the year 2014. (That should prove a few laughs to those a hundred years from now)

*a dozen botles of fine wine (that may even be worth something to someone then)

� some DNA of Bradbury, in case another genius like him hasn't yet appeared on the scene....

� a traditional marriage certificate... in case they have all but forgoten what it was all originally intended to mean....

� the worst book of poetry and fiction that can be found today. In 2104, who knows. It may not read so bad after all...

Quite possibly the best "snapshot" of our time would be a DVD of episodes of "The Simpsons," and maybe something to play it on! In one recently-aired episode, Homer was at the Springfield City dump. There was an area marked "Laser Discs," full, "Videotapes," full, then an empty area marked "Reserved for DVDs."

I like the idea of the Marriage cerificate.

This one's for my bisexual and gay comrades in arms.

Give them mine, so they know the importanace of cheating the government. I have pocketed 2500 dollars so far, and have another 2300 coming. I split it with my "wife"

Oh, and give them a newspaper clipping about the debates over legalizing gay marriage, so they know how petty we can be.

falon:

Mind taking a moment to jot down some other things you consider petty? Perhaps a companion '''petty-capsule''' could 'complete' the time-capsule.

Faler:

Just an added note...
You don't have to answer... but...

...because you consider the homosexual marriage furor ...'''petty'''...
what is your opinon on other news items that could also be put into this 'time capsule'...such news items as...

� Those pushing for the legalization of marriages that would include multiple wives or husbands...such as the early Mormon church tolerated...

� Bi-Sexual union marriages, which would include at least 3 people in a marriage.

There are other 'marriage' configurations out there, but how about these
so-called 'civil rights' issues for starters?

Just how petty would you view these to be at in the opening of the time capsule one hundred years from now?

Well.....

Nard, maybe the gay marriage debate articles would seem as petty in 100 years, as the articles of debate from 100 years ago that were against allowing whites and African-Americans to marry...

Ha! Just playing devil's advocate.... That's an interesting discussion, but this board really isn't the place for it, I suppose...

I haven't figured what I would put in a time capsule yet, but as I do renovations on the house here, I'm leaving current newspapers and coins throughout, in sealed-off spaces. Also, I'm writing my name and date all over everything (like the backs of door and window casing, subfloor before the finish floor is laid, etc.). But I'm hoping no one will ever see this stuff--at least not until long after I'm gone, because if they do it means that my renovations have been undone!

octobercountry:

I know... this topic...this break away topic..belongs elsewhere... so I will end it with this comment:
Your suggestion that 100 yrs. ago whites and black marrying was an issue....but it's not a moral issue. Moses, in scripture, was married to a black woman, and was given a lot of heat for that. But it was never considered a moral issue. The Catholic church in my neighborhood didn't allow black children in the school. There was a lot of historic baggage with previous generations. But nowhere in scripture does it say to hate black people. That was the ignorance of a society.
But we find in scripture that those that do not inherit heaven are listed in at least one epistle, together in one sentence: the drunkard, the homosexual, the fornicator. The easy way to get around all of this is very basic: don't believe any of it. Finally, It's not who you are that condemns a person, it's how they act upon who they are. Genetically born a drunk...does not mean you MUST live that way, tho the conflict to do otherwise would be great.

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 04-09-2004).]

Nard,

I must politely disagree that black/white marriage was not a moral issue in this country--from what I've read of history, it was exactly that, many years ago. With blacks being considered inferior humans, or even sub-human by certain groups of people, 2nd Corinthians 6:14 was used to justify a moral stance against such unions. Incredibly stupid mis-reading of scripture? You bet! But people believed it all the same. (And for all I know, some groups, like the KKK, still may use it in this way. I don't know that for a fact, because I have no interest in researching exactly what that group believes today--simply too upsetting to me to go into...)

But we both agree that this forum isn't the place for debates as the one earlier referenced. I have the feeling that such debates never change the viewpoints of those doing the debating, anyway. Their only constructive function may be to allow people who haven't yet made up their mind how they feel about the subject under discussion (whatever it may be) access to information, so that they themselves can come to their own conclusions.

There are many dozens--even hundreds?-- of branches of Christianity. And I have the sneaking suspicion that you and I likely follow branches that will never see eye-to-eye on many matters--the universe will implode before that happens! But you know, that's okay--we can just focus on those matters on which we share a common interest--like an admiration for the work of Mr Bradbury.