Your Final Project for this course will be a virtual time capsule. A time capsule is a grouping of
items for future discovery. For our purposes, we will imagine that our time capsule will be buried
at the end of the course and opened 100 years later. The goal of our capsule is to provide an
overview of what you believe future generations should remember about the twentieth and early
twenty-first centuries. The project can be composed in Microsoft Word or Powerpoint. It can
include multimedia if you wish. It should include the following eight parts:
1. A letter of introduction to tell someone in the future about your day-to-day life. What is your
daily experience? Tell this person about your habits, your customs, your feelings about our
present time, and your dreams for the future.
2. An example of morality and decision-making in current culture in 100 words or more.
3. Your definition of happiness in 100 words or more, including how you came to this view.
Next, you will also choose an artifact for each of the following areas (4-8).
You will explain the item in one paragraph, giving it context, and describing it.
Then spend at least one paragraph justifying its inclusion in the time capsule: Why is this item
worth preserving for the future, and what does it communicate about our culture today?
Why this object above all the other possibilities?
4. A significant literary work (poem, short story, play, or novel.)
5. A significant example of art or architecture.
6. A significant song or group of songs.
7. A significant film.
8. A significant item from popular culture (a toy, gadget, fad, etc.)
Please feel free to include examples that you discovered in our studies this term. Challenge
yourself to choose items that might be valuable for the future, though they might not necessarily
be your favorites. Cite sources if you use them.
May 17, 2011
Dear People from the Future,
Greetings! I do hope this letter finds you well. If you have unearthed this time capsule in the
distant future, then times have certainly changed. It is my aim to enlighten you to a few of the
things that this society has found to be important and to give you an idea of what life was like in
the year 2011.
In the time period that I am writing this, many people are very aware of their health, and I am no
exception. Every morning, I wake up at 5am to exercise. This includes at least 45 minutes of
cardiovascular exercise and weight training. This helps me to manage my busy work week and
give me the energy to attend classes at night.
At present, I work as a project coordinator in the Informational Technology field. During my
day, my job consists of coordinating job site setups for job trailers and dealing with network
administration and requests for my company’s nine offices that are located throughout the U.S.
Although this can be time consuming, I enjoy it and find that the busier I am, the more
productive I will be. Once my workweek is over, however, I spend my time playing golf,
paintball or softball. The more active I can be on the weekends, the better person I am at work
and at home. Staying fit helps me to find a positive balance in my life that I could not do
without.
In 2011, times are very uncertain, and I sincerely hope that this letter will be read in more
positive times. Here and now, too many countries—especially in the Middle East-- are fighting,
many of them over oil and gas. Cars in 2011 use a lot of both and so much of the economy is
bound to these unsustainable natural resources. Although the technology automakers are
developing should relieve our dependence on oil and gas, until they do, the earth’s natural
resources will continue to be pillaged. Perhaps my greatest hope is that this letter and time
capsule have found you in a much better and more peaceful time and that the mistakes we in the
past have made have not resulted in disastrous consequences. If they have, then I must also
hope that you will learn from our triumphs and mistakes so that life on Earth will be better for
future generations.
With peace and good tidings,
Morality and Decision-Making
At the present time, people here do try to take care of each other as much as possible, and we do
this through charitable actions. For example, when a natural disaster like an earth quake or
hurricane strikes, people come together to provide supplies, emotional support, and medical
attention to those in need. We also work together to rebuild the areas that have been hit. Rather
than expect others to fend for themselves or live in unsafe conditions, we believe that we are an
international community who must assist others in rebuilding their lives. Even though there is a
lot of war, famine, crime, we still believe that people are good and the decision to help others, in
spite of the horrors that go on, is a decision that must be made. For in helping others, we
ultimately help ourselves as well.
Happiness
Happiness to me can be defined as a state of contentment from experiencing life’s simple
pleasures—like being able to walk or run, actions that many people take for granted. I came to
this understanding from being around a family member who became paralyzed when he was
young and lost the use of his legs. Despite this, he still found joy in simply being alive. Being
around him made me realize how fortunate I am, but also that my fortune could easily change.
Since that realization, I have reveled in the pure pleasure of being able to use my legs and have
never taken it for granted.
Death of a Salesman
Although this play by Arthur Miller was written in 1949, its message is timeless. The play tells
the story of Willie Lowman, a salesman who has blind faith in the American dream. While he
tries to live it, he only succeeds in failing to attain it. In the play, Willy Lowman’s children are
spoiled and they steal from others as if it is their right to do so. Willy, as he ages and grows
unsuccessful, his ability to make payments on
his car, appliances, and things becomes
increasingly difficult. In essence, he overspends
to buy the things that would make him appear to
others like he and his family are something
more than what they are. Death of a Salesman
highlights the problems with materialism,
something that Americans have become
increasingly obsessed with, and so much so that
they would sacrifice their lives and the wellbeing of others just to have whatever it is they
want.
This play merits reading because it
demonstrates the problems with capitalism and
American greed. It is in this time capsule so
others can see what could potentially destroy
them—if it has not already. What once was the
American dream has been skewed. In the
beginning, it meant the freedom to speak one’s mind or have freedom and liberties without
recourse, and those who worked hard could do well in life. But now, in 2011, the American
dream seems to mean that everyone should have the same, even though not everyone wants to
work for it. What Willy Lowman, the salesman in the play, did not realize was that it is the
internal peace that we find that makes us more part of humanity, not the material possessions that
we collect and then discard. Above all other plays, Death of a Salesman is a reminder of the
things that people should not let destroy them.
Guernica by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso painted his masterpiece Guernica in response to the German and Spanish
Nationalist attack on the town of the same name. On the day Guernica was attacked in 1937, the
Germans pummeled the town, which had no military significance for three hours with more than
a hundred thousand pounds of bombs and explosives. The carnage was devastating, and the
Germans found no remorse in killing men, women, and even small children. Picasso depicts
these horrors in his painting. Perhaps the most memorable of the images is of the mother on the
left-side of the painting, who is holding her dead child and screaming upward to the heavens.
Although the bombing of Guernica was horrific, it seems that no lessons were learned. Innocent
people still die at the expense of those who wish to be in power. This painting is in the time
capsule as a reminder that war is horrible and eventually the world must remember the lessons
from history.
“Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan
This song asks many questions about when people will wake up and be aware of the changes that
must be made, yet all of the questions are then answered with “The answer my friend is blowing
in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind.” When Bob Dylan wrote this song in 1963,
times were certainly changing and people were becoming more aware of social justice. In spite
of the awareness, atrocities were still occurring.
“Blowin’ in the Wind” is in this
time capsule to remind those of
you in the future to at least seek
the answers. In the questions
you pose, the answers will either
be obvious to you or they will
pass you by (blowing in the
wind) if you ignore them. While
people from the past wanted and
sought change, they never
seemed to be able to do enough
to really bring about the peace
they so longed for and would
sing about. Regardless, they still
tried and that alone made
somewhat of a difference.
Perhaps if those of you in the
future play this song and listen to the words then maybe, just maybe, you will be able to finally
answer the questions that the song asks and make the changes needed so that no one will have to
suffer or die senselessly.
“Star Wars”
George Lucas’s “Star Wars” not only ushered in a whole new era in film-making, it also made
space exploration, and the possibility of life on other planets, seem more feasible. It also has a
timeless theme: good vs. evil. In the film, the young Luke Skywalker learns of his destiny to
become a Jedi knight, which his father once was. Although Skywalker’s tale becomes more
complicated in subsequent movies and director Lucas makes prequels, it is the original “Star
Wars” that sparked the imaginations of those who first watched it in 1976 and every other
generation since.
Perhaps one may think that “Star
Wars” is in the time capsule to give
those of you from the future a good
laugh. Seeing how crude the
technology was in the film—and then
knowing it was not even real—may
help you to realize how far you have
come. The film is listed because of its
theme, however. There has always
been, and always will be, a struggle
between good and evil. Regardless, if
one uses the ‘force,’ good will
ultimately prevail.
Rubik’s Cubes appeared in stores in the early 1980s and it became a huge success. The object of
the Cube is to get all sides one color. When it first came out, people would spend countless hours
trying to solve the puzzle. If one made a wrong move, then they would have to keep going or just
start all over. Eventually, people mastered the Cube and its novelty wore off. Later in the 21st
Century, a new generation rediscovered it, and although it did not have the same appeal as it did
when it was first released, it demonstrated how humans love to solve a puzzle.
The Rubik’s Cube is included in the time capsule for a couple of reasons. First of all, it also
represents the curiosity of the human spirit and how people thrive when they try to solve the
puzzles that are presented to them. Secondly, it is very symbolic of how problems might seem
like a puzzle, but if one keeps trying to solve them, they become less puzzling to them.
References
Death of a salesman. [Photograph]. Retrieved on May 17, 2011 from
http://ypsgroup.com/blog/e-rep/death-of-all-sales-reps/.
Dylan, B. Blowin in the wind. [Photograph]. Retrieved on May 17, 2011 from
http://chafikotmani.unblog.fr/2010/04/23/bob-dylan-blowin-in-the-wind/
Picasso, P. (1937). Guernica. Retrieved on May 17, 2011 from
http://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/farberas/arth/arth200/guernica.html.
PBS. (n.d.). Guernica: bombing of Guernica. Treasures of the World. Retrieved on May 17, 2011
from http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/guernica/glevel_1/1_bombing.html.
Rubik’s Cube. (n.d.). [Photograph]. Retrieved on May 17, 2011 from
http://www.gearfuse.com/happy-birthday-30th-rubiks-cube/.
Star Wars. (1976). [Movie Poster]. Retrieved on May 17, 2011 from
http://aroundthesphere.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/star-wars-nothing-but-star-wars/.