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A message to the future

I

i0Nic

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 17, 2006
1,456
68
Sydney, Australia
As we know the Pheonix lander is on Mars doing it's thing. What I didn't know was that there is a mini-dvd 'time capsule' strapped onto the deck of the spacecraft. It's for future inhabitants or explorers of Mars to find in the future, the dvd is built to last hundreds and hundreds of years.

The disc contains stories, images and video from our generation about our visions of Mars and the future in general. It contains recorded messages from key science fiction writers such as Arthur C Clark, and you can watch them on the Planetary Society's website.

There is an introduction on the disc which I found a fascinating read. It is amazing to think that future inhabitants, maybe hundreds or even thousands of years from now, will be curious enough to learn about us and our visions of the future.

I highly recommend the read and to look at the Planetary Society's site and check out the various media on the disc. I have dugg this link because, as a space enthusiast, I would like as many people to read it as possible. It's an amazing time we are living in on the cusp of a future era of space travel.

Here's the link, don't forget to digg it.
http://digg.com/space/Message_to_the_Future

I hope you find the introduction as interesting as I did.
 
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I think its a cool idea but I do hope they burned it as region 0 - I doubt if ET has a multi-region player in his/her spaceship ;)

(sorry sarcasm - its my way)

On a serious note I hold my hands up to Nasa for getting another probe down safely (poor buggers keep missing the mark) - Cant wait to see life on another planet (even if microbial) and throw it to the creationists here (I am not a flamer in religious/science matters, but I thrive on a good solid arguament based on facts)
 
costabunny said:
I think its a cool idea but I do hope they burned it as region 0 - I doubt if ET has a multi-region player in his/her spaceship ;)
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For all those poor aliens' luck, it'll probably be HDCP'd, and they'll have to crack the encryption, which will take them ten minutes but will violate the DMCA and cause them to be sued immediately as soon as they reach Earth. :D
 
costabunny said:
On a serious note I hold my hands up to Nasa for getting another probe down safely (poor buggers keep missing the mark) - Cant wait to see life on another planet (even if microbial) and throw it to the creationists here (I am not a flamer in religious/science matters, but I thrive on a good solid arguament based on facts)
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Oh they'll probably say it was shot into space from Pharaonic Egypt as a result of the Rain of Fire or something similar. People in De'Nile :)D) will always find some reason to back up their argument.

With regards to this DVD, I hope they've put in some decent extra features and a director's commentary. I wouldn't want our future descendants feeling short-changed.
 
Only lasts a couple of hundred years? Boo.

Imagine if a meteor or something hits Mars and the disc goes flying off into space. On some return orbit it comes back to a future earth. Everything from our time would be lost and forgotten, but this disc is found. It's the single greatest moment for the future kind. A glimpse into their past. Where they will work on a way of deciphering the disc and getting the data off it, they would bring in scholars to understand our language. A fraction of their own history returned.
 
raggedjimmi said:
Only lasts a couple of hundred years? Boo.

Imagine if a meteor or something hits Mars and the disc goes flying off into space. On some return orbit it comes back to a future earth. Everything from our time would be lost and forgotten, but this disc is found. It's the single greatest moment for the future kind. A glimpse into their past. Where they will work on a way of deciphering the disc and getting the data off it, they would bring in scholars to understand our language. A fraction of their own history returned.
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Sadly, the disc was secretly exchanged with Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey right before launch.


Weep for the future.
 
A message to the future, should be, don't repeat our mistakes. But the question would be, would they listen? Doubtful, as we haven't learned from the mistakes of those before us.
 
It would be awesome if they included a bit of porn. How about the movie Alien or Aliens. I don't want to get their imaginations going, but if they're going to probe our asses or kill us, they may as well live up to some standard.
 
raggedjimmi said:
Only lasts a couple of hundred years? Boo.

Imagine if a meteor or something hits Mars and the disc goes flying off into space. On some return orbit it comes back to a future earth. Everything from our time would be lost and forgotten, but this disc is found. It's the single greatest moment for the future kind. A glimpse into their past. Where they will work on a way of deciphering the disc and getting the data off it, they would bring in scholars to understand our language. A fraction of their own history returned.
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I think this disc is more for today's generation than it is for the future. If they really wanted to preserve it for the future, why leave it out in the weather laying on the top of the lander? A couple of hundred years of sandstorms will destroy the disc easily.

This thing is more like a Time Capsule. The scientists who put it there (no doubt members of the Mars Society), and were probably thinking of their own great grandchildren walking around on Mars (extremely unlikely), than they were aliens or future earths.

The plaque affixed to Pioneer and the disc on Voyager were aimed squarely at infinity and intended to be findable and decipherable millions of years from now. This DVD is more like a howdy to future earth people living on Mars which a lot of people assume will happen in the next hundred years or so (it won't though). ;)
 
dynamicv said:
... Is that because of all the fire-breathing rock snakes?
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Nah, it's because all the smart money says that teraforming is inherently impossible due to the energy equations, and inter-planetary civilisation/colonisation equally so.

I'm a sci-fi/space nut and would love to see humans on Mars, even a permanent presence there. Hell, it's clear that the journey could have been made 20 years ago already if anyone had the guts and imagination to go for it. :mad:

Kin Stanley Robinson's "Blue Mars" however is basically impossible. It's a neat idea, but it's about as likely to come true as that space elevator that certain people keep on about (and is also in his book). :rolleyes:

Ideas like this are "Futurist" concepts that tend to persist because of the attractiveness of the concept alone, not because they make any sense. Futurism is a belief system, and much closer to science-fiction and religion that it is a rational argument for a real future technology.§
 
Virgil-TB2 said:
Nah, it's because all the smart money says that terraforming is inherently impossible due to the energy equations, and inter-planetary civilisation/colonisation equally so.
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Terraforming probably, but inter-planetary colonisation is most definitely possible. Energy is currently extremely limited, because of our reliance on fossil fuels etc. However, we will get over this hurdle providing we don't poison our own world and wipe ourselves out beforehand. Fusion would unlock absolutely everything, since it would bring virtually limitless materials and energy within our reach by today's standards. The ITER project may be barking up the wrong tree or not, but it is our best hope if we're ever going to break out of Earth.
 
Wouldnt it of made sense to strap a DVD player to the lander too?

"Hey Trevor, look what I've found. Its an ancient drinks coaster."
 
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