Google Project 10^100 idea: What would you say to a century today?

The is an idea for a website, aCenturyToday.org, that will aim to inspire long-term thinking, imagination, innovation and hope (from an early age) by allowing people to send a message or messages that are stored and then displayed 100 years to the second after they click send (a bit like a blog with a 100 year delay).

Sending a message or messages will give the sender a connection with the long distant future and so encourage them to think about the effects of their actions today and act in ways to ensure a better long term future.

Sending a message would be free and all messages sent would be completely private - the next person to read your message would be reading it in the 22nd century! And the next person to read their messages would be in the 23rd century etc etc!

Users could also publish on the site (today) what they think life will be like a century from now and they could also design a message back (what would they say to us?).

The site will also have many educational features to encourage participation by schools and colleges, such as lesson plans and other teaching resources. These resources will including photos, video, handouts etc. to illustrate what life was like around a century ago, which could be contrasted with today to help imagine what changes, inventions, innovations etc. may occur by a century today.

The site will also include information on sustainability and looking after the environment to encourage everyone to ACT now to look after the planet to ensure a better long-term future for everyone for ever.

What would you say to the people of the next century?

- - - - - - - - - - [ Below added Feb 09 ] - - - - - - - - - - -- -

This excerpt (below) from President Barack Obama's victory speech could also serve as an inspiration for the students/users on the website:

'...This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment...'

Excerpt from President Barack Obama's Victory Speech - Chicago, Illinois - 4th November 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Th4eiZ_c8

http://www.project10tothe100.com.

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[SvetoslavDjourkov]

i would say: You lucky.. You are immortal and have the chance to understand the real trueth about Mankind... And i have to die because we have not enough money for research on how to defeat aging and dead....in next 100years Religion dies out and the trueth comes to light =) i WOULD PAY MILLIONS TO SEE THE FACES OF THE PRISTS AND PAPST WHEN WE SCIENTIST ARE ABLE TO READ THE MIND OF GOD...

.Theory of Everithing, Immortality, AGI...

[bobaks1108]

@SvetoslavDjourkov - maybe they say 'You lucky' to us...

Thanks for your comment.

[ElJorro]

Hope we last another hundred years.

[bobaks1108]

We've got this far.

[AeRoS0n]

in hunder years internet will not exist anymore it will be replaced with some global complex and universal connection between all of us, something like in the anime called: ghost in the shell, they could communicate with anything just throught mind

[guido737]

life goes on without me?