The scenario –
Interstellar vehicles of novel design (not saucer shaped) materialise without warning one morning in the worlds four most important cities (Washington, Moscow, Brussels, and Sheffield). Each disgorges a number of aliens of novel appearance (not grey) who deliver their message to the various world leaders (plus the mayor of Sheffield). They are not interested in war or peace (or “war and peace”) they merely require that within the period of one year they be presented with a single object to represent the planet Earth at the great galactic museum (entry free to children and races yet to discover the secret of ******). This object will be the sole criteria by which humanity will be judged on creativity, originality, technical competence, style and poise. The object can take any form and be constructed from any material available to us but items artistically expressing the futility and bloodiness of human history should be avoided as they may result in the extermination of the human race (and some of the smarter monkeys). Likewise any entry consisting of the contents of the British library and/or the human genome inscribed on something really small is not likely to win any marks for originality (how all those other races got hold of the entire human genome is likely to remain an insoluble mystery). The governments of the planet (plus Sheffield borough council) have recognised the various denizens of the straight dope message board as the cream (clotted or otherwise) of human intellectual development and have requested suggestions.
The Rules
- The object may be no larger than a six foot cube
- Perpetual motion machine will be checked for hidden battery compartments
- No death ray’s of any vintage whatsoever (that would be the Martian’s entry)