Inspired by this amazing but, as yet unsolved, thread about a wallet discovered in the walls of a home from the 70s, I’d like to be the originator of a secret message for a future homeowner to uncover and get back to me on. We have half walls in our front living room that I’ve torn out the unsightly faux-marble formica ledges, and am replacing with good, old red oak. This leaves a lot of surface area to inscript with an indelible message and so far, I’ve come up with this idea:
Leave my gmail address for them to contact me, and await further instruction. I figure out of all my email addresses now, that will be the one that lasts the longest. But I might need a back up plan.
Other thoughts: I want to protect myself in case this person happens to be a nutjob, and I need to abandon it and distance myself from this potential freak.
Make the message semi-cryptic as to allure the new homeowner into the initial contact.
It could be upwards of 20 years before anyone might discover the message, how do I ensure they can relay me the message? I assume gmail and Google will still be around by then… but these things change so fast now-a-days. Can’t be counted on.
I could be dead by the time of disinterment. Creepy as hell.
So, obviously this is the place to come for forming such a message, or even a cipher/code. Need some really great ideas if not fully formed messages. This could be good fun. I will supply photos and such after and during the inauguration of the “time-capsule”. And of course, if the SDMB is still around by then, I will necro-post the results… hopefully 20 years +. Cool!
Leave a time-capsule to be delivered to you at some alternate location in the future. Additionally, it should have a method by which the finder of the parcel has a method of including their own message to you.
I am currently peeling wallpaper in my livingroom (after 6 yrs living in my house!).
I was surprised how bad the walls were beneath the paper. Next I’ll have to learn how to do a thin coat of plaster over the top of it all, that should be interesting, but I digress.
As I tore down one of the final strips what did I find but a spot where a young girl had taken a pencil and written her name, and the name of her friend (so denoted) and the year on the wall.
The year was 1968. And the two names we the same as me and my best friend, whom I immediately phoned and told. It was very cool.
I would definitely write a message. The getting back to you part, I’m not sure about that, but give it a shot, you’ve got nothing to lose.
When I was in high school in early 2000s, one of my classes got permanent marker on its whiteboard such that it couldn’t be cleaned. The janitors came in to pull it down one day and we discovered behind it a chalk board as it had been at the end of the day when they put the board over it.
I don’t remember all the details but through some detective work we figured out that it had been there since the late eighties or early nineties as I recall. It was pretty cool.
Slightly related… My old high school had parts of it that dated back to the late 19th century (thankfully the place was abandoned for a better building… Though they did this a couple years after I graduated). I remember seeing graffiti carved into the now hard as rock window caulk in a couple of places… Initials and dates from the 30s and 40s.
As for your situation… Imagine how much everything has changed with computers over the past 20 years. The Internet was in diapers. I highly doubt your gmail account will be active… or even relevent to use, in 20 years.
You don’t know where you’ll be living (biological processes allowing), and you don’t know the technology that people will use to contact each other. Cell phones and landlines are also unlikely to be kept that long.
You have to set up a location you know will be there in 20 years and one you know you could get to every year. Say you live in a small town. A note that is cryptic saying “Front steps of the town hall, every first Sunday of July, 6:30am”. And no, to avoid crazys don’t go there and shake his hand… Every year leave a note there and watch… If he doesn’t show, take the note and try again next year.
This is, of course, assuming you have the time and plan on staying around the area or close enough to it. Just the safest way and way you can be most sure contact between yourself and the other is possible, seeing how technology and your location will probably change far too much over time.
Cool stories all. Feel free to post any anecdotes about any findings. I find them fascinating for some reason.
Also, calyton_e… I was afraid of such things myself. For what it’s worth, there’s only room to write a message or leave a note, as the top has been dry-walled over, and there is no space between the half-wall to leave any objects. I might leave a gmail address for the hell of it (who knows?) and hope for the best. I do like your idea of an actual location/date, but unfortunately, I can’t assume I’ll be living in this area (or state even) for that long either. So I’d hate to leave instruction for something I wouldn’t be able to keep up with. Great idea though.
I was also thinking of leaving a map to a buried time-capsule in the back yard. Something kind of fun like that… in there would be instruction on how to contact me, among other interesting things from this era. I have two young kids (8 & 4) who are going to really get a kick out of this as well.
Whenever I do a home renovation that involves opening up a wall, I drop in a current NY Times. I figure it might be cool for a future renovator to stumble across it and reminisce over the wacky 2000’s.
My dad was a house builder, and remodeler. He found things left purposfuly and not, in many remodel jobs. Magazines plastered between the joists. Many older homes have a direct openning from the attic down to the sill on the first floor. Items always fell down into the walls from the attic. Messages got left on the joists, attic beams, under wallpaper, and under the floor boards. I think the attic joists work good, because the building doesn’t have to be ripped apart to find, and sombody occassionaly goes into it. It was neat when an 80 year old jacknife, or magazine came home. Old farm buildings have to be the best place to look for old history. You can find stuff boarded up and not touch for generations, because nobody uses the stuff in the room anymore.
Hmm. I’m also thinking of creating a video to go in the time capsule. Capture the house and the neighborhood (and even us) they way it was waaaaay back in 2007. Burn it to DVD. Also leave hard copy photos. It’ll be their problem to track down a DVD player… but hey. Can’t make it too easy on them.
I can see the video thread on the holo-net now: “How do I play an antiquated Digital Video Disc from circa 2000? Is there a way to convert the data to holo-bytes? Do I need a special Optical Relay Interface for my visual cortex?”
A DVD* might* not be the way to go. The curator at my museum insists that DVDs and CD-ROMs are not good for long-term data storage because the plastic isn’t stable. (Although some people on here have insisted that he’s incorrect which is why I said might.)
I would stick to the tried-and-true of paper. Use acid-free paper because modern papers don’t last very long, especially in conditions where the heat and humidity may fluctuate.
Good point, but I can’t imagine plastic lasting any less than… oh… a few hundred years. That crap takes a WHILE to break down. Might get warped though, So I’ll ensure it stays flat and secured. Plus, we live in south-east Michigan, so there’s not a lot of geological stuff happening over the course of, say, a couple hundred years. The thin layer of aluminum might be problematic though. Well, I’ll be sure to purchase archive quality DVDs and paper all around! I think the video is worth a shot.
I can’t remember if I mentioned this in the OP’s linked thread or not, but I discovered this while renovating my daughter’s room.
Something else that I often wonder about: My home was built in 1860, and the flooring in most of the house reflects that fact. The planks are old, but still in very good shape for the most part. However, in some spots gaps have appeared between the boards. These range from very thin (maybe squeeze a slip of paper in there) to quite wide (a quarter-inch or slightly more in spots). I’m often very tempted to pry up a few boards around some of these wider gaps and see what has fallen through the cracks over the years.
Yes, plastic takes a long time to completely break down, but the time needed to obscure the data might be considerably less. I’ve seen plastics which get sort of a “gummy” film on them after a few decades. If CDs or DVDs are made of unstable plastics, the disc itself would be intact but the layers where the data is written would be unreadable. And there’s no way of stopping it. Keeping it in a controlled environment might slow the damage, but it won’t completely halt it.
At least that’s what my curator claims. Just thought I’d mention it.
That’s cool. Too bad it’s not 1900, rather than 2000. And another weird thing is, I have double Zs in my last name, and he writes them the exact same way as I do. Like 2 3s.
Understood. I might include 3 or 4 copies, just to try to mitigate the potential of corruption. Also, if it is just the plastic that degrades, there might be a way to polish the surface if determined enough. I suspect that a high-quality DVD might last at least 20 - 30 years if kept in a dark, water-tight container. Is there anyway to suck out the air? Or easily displace the oxygen with a noble gas? I’m thinking helium.
You could really screw with people by putting in a note claiming that you have the proof of the Theory of Everything but just don’t have the space to include it on the paper (sort of like Fermat did). Or leave a message in a made-up language. Or a fake treasure map that would make the person think the treasure is underneath an important building. Or, my favorite, write a message in blood stating that the house is cursed.
I’m like erie774… I’d leave a note explaining that the attached roll of film is the missing evidence that proves who shot Kennedy; then I’d simply spoil a roll and tuck it away with the note.
Or, better yet, take a VHS videotape and write “Superbowl 1” across it. Run a magnet around it to really screw it up and tuck it away.
And another weird thing is, I have double Zs in my last name, and he writes them the exact same way as I do. Like 2 3s.