Written Response

For years, students and scholars had to search throughout hundreds of pages from books to find a specific message or idea. Nowadays anyone one can use the search engine Google to find the answer to anything. Whether your trying to find the answer to a math problem, learning why the sky is blue, or searching for the main theme of a book, the answer is somewhere in the massive database of Google. We often take for granite how digital space has made our lives easier and less stressful. We can store images, videos, games, or even buy products over the internet. This shaped the world in many ways our ancestors couldn’t even imagine. The digital space found on the internet can be a good place to store messages as well.
There have been many cartoons that have scenes which the protagonist will find a bottle with a message inside. Sometimes the message will have a map locating treasure or it could be an old man’s will. Another way to store a message for use in the future is using a Time Capsule. A Time Capsule is a box or some sort of storage device that is primarily used to store messages, toys, pictures, or any other valuable item for the sake of someone finding some time in the future. Time Capsules can be a great activity for kids. When I was eight, my cousin wanted to make a time capsule and burry it under the local park gazebo. Ten years later, we dug it up and recollected on the items put inside. The time capsule had a small My Little Pony toy, a picture of my family at my Grandpa’s 70th birthday, and a message written by my cousin when she was eight. It was a nostalgic moment for all of us.
I’m sure there are many other families that did the same thing as well. However, what happens if a Time Capsule set to open in 2030 is destroyed by a construction project or some sort of natural disaster. Physical time capsules can be lost or forgotten as well. As I was thinking about a way to solve this problem, I realized that perhaps there might be a way to store a time capsule on the digital space of the internet. A digital time capsule can store many different items as well. For instance, physical time capsules cannot store links to favorite websites/games, videos, images, or a set of code from the past. We could use a USB drive to store all our information as well. Also, physical time capsule doesn’t even compare to the storage compacity a USB drive can hold.

As time flows by faster and faster, our technology becomes stronger and more expansive than ever before. In fact, NASA’s Voyager 1 has only around 40kb of memory (Wills par.1). To give you an example of how small that is my response for Project 12 has over 700 more KB than the Voyager 1. Which keep in mind is millions of miles away from Earth. Nowadays we have video game consoles that can store up to 1 terabyte, the equivalent of 1000 gigabytes. With this knowledge at hand I can store more information on a digital time Capsule than in a physical one.
Within the next five to twenty years we are expected to have many more ways to store digital information. One example is the Helium drive. Helium hard drives can store up to 8TB! Also, a 10TB hard drive was just announced. However, an 8TB drive costs around $500 dollars (Pinola par1-10). The Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) is a new piece of technology that can store up to 8TB of memory similar to the helium drive, however the technology inside the drive is different. The SMR is the first perpendicular drive which means the memory is stored within tracks above one another. This means that multiple tracks of data are changed at once instead of one at a time. The main usage of this is for streaming (Seagate par.1-11). For more information on this please check out the citations below. Our USB ports are even changing. The normal USB ports we use are called type-A. They are very reliable and are located on nearly every device. However, a new challenger is approaching, the type-C. The type-C is smaller which means the transfer times are faster (Villas-Boas par.1-7).
This is just the beginning of the future for technology. We will most likely find new ways to store information digitally and the same goes for digital time capsules as well. How knows, the TB may become the new MB in the next 50 years.

Message was the second word I picked for this project because of the impact messages can have on us. Many forms of media can have messages including movies, video games, books, and even time capsules can store messages for the future. Many physical time capsules have a small message inside them like a memoir of someone’s life or a letter to one’s future self. I have made messages for my future self as well. When I was in the 8th grade. My social studies teacher had my class write letters to our selves the we would read once we graduated. Messages for the future like this example are a good way to show how much some one can change in four years. Last year, I read my letter that I wrote in the 8th grade and I was filled with all sorts of embarrassment. It was still fun to read.
There is a website called Dear Tomorrow which is dedicated to storing messages for someone special in the future. This website is a digital version of what I did in the 8th grade. On this website, anyone can write a message to anyone of their choosing. The message is sent via email. There are options for adding videos and photos to be sent as well. Then, there is an option to pick when the message will be sent. The message could be sent tomorrow or in 50 years (dear tomorrow). I believe this website is a good way to store messages for the future. The only downside to this website is that the options are very limited. For instance, I wouldn’t be able to store hundreds of videos or images on this site. This site primarily focuses on messages via email.
There is another option for digitally storing a message like mine. However, this option is expensive and may come with more than we need. The Apple AirPort Time Capsule can store up to 2TB of information and it acts just like a time capsule. The major downside with this option is that it costs over 200 dollars and most people won’t have a large amount of information to store. However, the high cost and design indicate the luxury of the item. There are people who may want this option for a digital time capsule.

Just as how stories can have meanings and messages, our actions can be the same. For instance, making a time capsule can be a prime example of this. There are many reasons to make a time capsule. In the example above, my cousin wanted to make one just for the fun of it. Some people may make a time capsule to “burry” their past so they can move on. Eventually, they will open it to show how much they have changed over time. There are many adults that I know who have Alzheimer’s. It’s a horrible disease and a time capsule may help improve memory. Time capsules can also be used to close the gap between generations. For instance, I could make a time capsule and place my old phone in it. My old phone is a Samsung Reclaim, a flip phone. It would give me a heavy amount of nostalgia to see that 50 years from now. Time capsules can help preserve favorite memories, save family heirlooms, organize favorite childhood items as well.
A digital time capsule can’t store physical items, but it can store much more digital items such as images, videos, and games. A physical time capsule won’t be able to store video files, it would only be able to store physical discs or VHS tapes. Both have the same ability to store a message for the future.

The internet is massive. There are hundreds of websites available to explore and endless array of games to play. However, your browser is only strong enough to see the tip of the iceberg.

This image is a perfect example of how deep the web is. According to the image above, most of the population will only see 4% of the web pages on the internet. This is called the world wide web. The Deep web is were 90% of the data is stored. Some of the data stored is mentioned in the image. I bet my medical records as well as yours are here. Who knows what officials will do with it. The most disturbing part of the web is called the Dark web. This is were all illegal activities happen. This is were you will find illegal porn, stolen information, and snuff films. These are films of people being murdered in front of a live audience for entertainment. The Dark web is where many people can find access to buying drugs and hitmen as well (Rosario par.1-9). The only way to access the dark web is through a web browser called Tor. Tor is a web browser strong enough to search through the bowels of the dark web. Unfortunately, officials have a hard time capturing criminals because of the amount of search it would take to find them on the dark web. Also, the deep web is around 400-500 times larger than the accessible web (Bright Planet par.1).
With all these websites combined, there is a lot of information stored. In fact, I would say most of the world’s information is stored digitally. Digital time capsules would be a miniscule expansion to the gargantuan database. Let’s just hope that the internet doesn’t go down some day. If it were too, mass hysteria would be everywhere.

Future, Message, and Digital space are a good pair of words that describe our current climate towards the internet right now. There are many people who fear that we are too heavily focused on the internet while others store all important information on cloud databases. We are living in a time where we are switching from printed records to digital records. Its hard imagine that this all happened within the span of 30-40 years.
I believe that my question will be answered through this project. We can store messages any where physically. All you have to do is write a sentence on a piece of paper and store it somewhere. To store a message digitally, let’s say store a message on the google drive, takes a different step by step process. First, I would have to write a message on google sheets and then save it. The sheet is saved on the google cloud.
However, my idea for making a digital time capsule is a new experience for me. I will create a website using my coding skills followed by adding my own information that I want stored. Will create a countdown cock with JavaScript on the website. All my information will be stored behind a button stored on the website. The button will only be up for use after the clock reaches zero. However, this site must be saved on a web server so the clock can work properly. Each site will be different depending on the individual. Therefore, I have decided to buy a bulk of flash drives for the class. Each student will be able to Store anything they want on there website. The flash drive will include a guide on how to code in what they want as well. I will store this info on the main site for this project.
Messages are an important part of human history. Our parents, presidents, and teachers tell use messages everyday and time capsules are a sort of way of telling messages for ourselves. The Digital time capsule is the next step to storing messages for our future selves online.

Home