What will be left form us for future generations? The project “A message to the future” prepared by Biuro Podróży Reklamy for Papiery POL has been launched.

Wall paintings from before dozen thousands of years, Sumerian tablets or Egyptian pyramids – these and many more types of legacy of the past allows us imagine, at least a little, how the human life looked like before. These records are truly priceless, as thanks to them we know who we are, where we come from and what the history of humanity is. Because of them we can study the legacy of non-existent civilizations and conjure up how the life in the past ages looked like. We can say that they are messages from the past, who survived a long time to reach the present.

What is left from us, then? What exactly will people of the future be able to learn about us? Will we leave anything that will save our civilization from complete oblivion?

Many of us try to answer this question. That is why we design and create things believing them to last for centuries. However, not everyone can afford a granite stone with a message to be read by future generations. By the way, such legacy of the past can get destroyed and its message can be consigned to oblivion.

There is, however, a way to send a message to the future which allows it to survive in a non-deteriorated condition. We talk about time capsules, which contain the legacy of the relevant age. Hidden from the whole world, they are waiting for the right time to come, when they are opened and everybody can get to know their contents.

Some of the most interesting ventures of that kind are such projects as: Crypt of Civilization (1936), which will be opened in 8113, KEO satellite, which will fall to Earth in 50 thousand years or LAGOS time capsule, which is now in orbit and will re-enter the Earth in 8.4 million years and contains i. a. the current location of the continents – data that will change slightly in the future.

How can I participate in one of such projects myself? The same question was asked by Papiery POL, which decided to create a time capsule and make it possible for everyone to send a message to the future. The only thing you have to do is enter the website and leave a message which will be printed on paper and put into a specially prepared time capsule.

The aim of the project is to allow everyone to create any message they want; therefore neither Papiery POL nor the project organizers are going to read, collect or otherwise influence the content of the information being printed – the first ones to read the contents of the capsule will be those who discover it.