# Selecting an item for aliens that best represents Earth **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 28, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selecting-an-item-for-aliens-that-best-represents-earth/487813 "2009-02-28T19:32:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![awb1131](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@awb1131](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awb1131)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selecting-an-item-for-aliens-that-best-represents-earth/487813/61 "2014-02-28T14:18:48Z")
I would choose the show Quantum Leap; it shows humans for what we really are - imperfect. In the show Sam’s mission is to hop from one body to the next and helps guide the individual through small decisions that will have a profound impact on the rest of their lives. If we could all live our lives with this kind of foresight, keeping the journey in mind while navigating through simple encounters, the world would be a much better place. We are all seemingly so different but in the end what unites us is struggle. Despite our uniqueness, our lives follow the same template. The show doesn’t only show a glossed over version of reality; there are “bad guys” - people who are parasitic and callous. The show was created almost 30 years ago and yet Sam’s holographic companion is always fiddling with something that functions much like an iPhone. It explores issues of global significance and exposes some of our deepest prejudices and comments on our lack of acceptance for others in the face of apparent integration and equality. Quantum Leap exposes some of our greatest downfalls as a race but it also focuses on our ability to persevere and adapt given the right amount of awareness. It highlights that every single action you take has consequences and it recognizes the importance of manifesting happiness with each deliberate action. Sometimes, if Sam hadn’t intervened, the main characters might have even become the villain in another plot line. It takes awareness, courage, and a willingness to embrace opportunity to change the direction of your life. It also displays our fascination with information and the need to have technology at our finger tips. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selecting-an-item-for-aliens-that-best-represents-earth/487813/62 "2014-02-28T14:26:05Z")
I would choose _Shaun of the Dead_, because it’s a great movie, and because zombies. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selecting-an-item-for-aliens-that-best-represents-earth/487813/63 "2014-02-28T15:39:52Z")
(And I still can’t believe “invisible thread” is that obscure a reference. Penn & Teller!) ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selecting-an-item-for-aliens-that-best-represents-earth/487813/64 "2014-02-28T17:05:49Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > A 1952 Buick sized world atlas. Yeah. I’m a bit of a literalist, so for me the best representation of Earth would be a representation of earth: a really nice big globe with all the countries and major cities marked, and the mountain ranges in relief, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selecting-an-item-for-aliens-that-best-represents-earth/487813/65 "2014-03-01T00:00:32Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > The aliens are not destroying the earth. They are here to preserve a piece of it before its inevitible destruction. They know an unavoidable catastrophe is coming and want a record of the earth’s existance. What item would you choose to represent that? Didn’t Star Trek (TOS) do [this subject](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Empath_%28episode%29) already? ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selecting-an-item-for-aliens-that-best-represents-earth/487813/66 "2014-03-01T00:17:09Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > A knife. There is no tool we use more than the knife. I disagree! The main tool we use more than the knife (or any other) is our BRAINS, idiot! 😛 What? Oh, THAT’s why they invited me along?:smack: What do you mean ‘support/display’? [SIZE=2]–G! I’ve been waiting 5 years (to the day) for the punchline to AllWalker’s joke/riddle in #16 [/SIZE] ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selecting-an-item-for-aliens-that-best-represents-earth/487813/67 "2014-03-03T18:44:32Z")
self-cleaning oven ---
**Author:** ![Moris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moris/32/2846_2.png) [@Moris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moris)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selecting-an-item-for-aliens-that-best-represents-earth/487813/68 "2014-03-03T19:29:54Z")
I’d take a few fertile humans. If that’s against the rules, an old wind-up gramophone with a sizeable LP collection. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selecting-an-item-for-aliens-that-best-represents-earth/487813.md?page=3)