Edited by author 08-18-2002 01:31 PM
The cultural references in this letter will all be outdated in fifty years. But the basic message is still there I suppose. But they won't know what to make of cockroaches, apes, etc.

Edited by author 08-19-2002 03:37 PM
I think a simple "you're standing on my grave, asshole" would be a really good message to the future.

--- Added later ---
It occurs to me that what currently passes for humorous sarcasm and sarcastic humor will have no relevance 50K years from now. It will be non-sequitur to the denizens of the future.

Damn. I really liked the idea of that joke. There needs to be a way of letting them know that while we were pretty much bent on destroying our world, that some of us were not afraid to jam a finger up the nose of Fate. I'd much rather be remembered for that than Hiroshima (another thing that wasn't my fault).

"You're standing on my grave, asshole." would be perfectly acceptable, too, zangdesign - they say they're not going to be censoring the messages in any way...this makes me wonder just how many people are simply going to leave messages like "F**K yOu FaGoTs, YoU sUxOr FuTuRe MoThErF**KeRs!!!" I'm guessing that'll be a huge percentage. They'll really be scratching their heads over that one.

Didn't really figure you'd post all of that, heh. Cory, far as the Dyson Sphere stuff, man, I just woke up, I can't wrap my brain around that just yet. I considered just asking 'em to hop in their little time machine and get me off this hellhole, or at least drop me off a phaser or some other neato toys. Oh well...

Language will have moved on so much in 50k years that nothing short of a pictograph or something mathmatical will be decipherable imo. The problems translating the Rosetta stone is a terrific example of what a mere 1,000 or so years can do, even when you have a key like a language you DO know--Greek.

I think I'll make mine a simple smiley face with a topping of curly hair.

This is a deliberate Rosetta Stone project that may solve the problem, Pat.

http://longnow.org/

Of course, if we ascend from Meatspace in the next hundred years or so, it'll be us (or our computational descendants) opening the capsule in 50k years.

"it'll be us (or our computational descendants) opening the capsule in 50k years."

How utterly f$%#ing appalling a prospect that would be.

Not you personally Cory. Just the thought of archaic personalities hanging around forever, like some odious, nostalgia-driven Heinlein character.

I did my own riff on the whole Singularity thing eleven years ago:

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/Roleplayer/Ro...SoulHarvesters.html

I've seen the 50k clock and the 'long now' project--matter of fact I think I learned about it from you!

Interesting side-topic. Theyr'e trying to think of a way to ward people off of the salt mine full of radioactive shit in (Arizona?). It will be hot for millenia, long after present day language is dead. Assuming we are not subsumed into a mechanistic mental analog (a prospect that appeals much less to me than it does to you--I've lived through broken furnaces and toilets--I know the limits of machines), there will have to be some non-linguistic way to say 'Stay Out!'. Fascinating project.

Hmm, after all those sidebars and parentheses I'm feeling like David Foster Wallace.

I deeply regret not stopping by the Presidio to visit the Long Now offices before moving to Portland. I understand they'll let you see the Clock if you make an appointment.

Greg Benford wrote a book ("Deep Time: How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia") about his work with the radioactives-dump warnings signs and other projects:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380793466

Interesting stuff, from a slightly different perspective than Stewart Brand's Long Now work.