A time capsule for today: Dig it up in 3000.

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According to Wikipedia, a time capsule is a “historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people.”

With that in mind, I began thinking about what we could put into a time capsule today to reflect our lives here and now. What items from our own communities would help people in the year 3000 imagine who we were and how we lived?

First in: a copy of Wikipedia, the quintessential semi-reliable source of information for a culture that demands only “semi-reliable” from its sources. It’s so today.

Apple, of course, has something called a Time Capsule among its gizmos. The device stores vast amounts of information, and storing stuff is truly emblematic of our time. We have to throw one of those into our Sept. 18, 2014, capsule, don’t you think? Just to respect Apple’s prominence in our culture. Even if the humanoids of 3000 have no way of “reading” the device.

I suggest a solid, weather-proof, radiation-proof (gotta cover all eventualities) capsule that would hold a couple of dozen items — a capsule that would be buried in the ground, with the idea that it would be discovered someday.

Caution is essential. Apparently, construction workers in Kentucky just came upon a time capsule buried in 1956 by some university students. The contents were so boring (class rosters, phone books, lipsticks and fountain pens) that they reburied it. I guess they figured folks of the future might find a periodic table of interest.

Since the capsule must evoke this moment in time, I would include, along with the Apple Time Capsule, an iPhone. Specifically, I would bury my husband’s, which I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Also, sorry, Apple, but your brand new, not-quite-released wristwatch is a “must” for the capsule. It’s already obsolete.

I would throw in a brisket, soaked in preservatives, because at this moment, in my community, it’s all about traditional food for the Jewish holidays.

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