In The Year 52011

I am just getting around to reading the May/June issue of Poets & Writers and among all the usual good stuff is a small piece about the KEO Project. Have you heard of it?

The KEO Project is a proposal that a time capsule filled with messages from everyday people around the world would be launched into space to orbit the earth for 50,000 years, then reenter earth's atmosphere to (hopefully) be discovered by a future civilization, should mankind still exist.

Submissions are sought from everyone who can write a text message. There is a limit of 6,000 characters (or about 1100 words) so that the largest number of messages possible can be archived in the capsule. This is your chance to write something that may long outlive even the memory of you. The deadline for submissions is the end of 2009, so that there will be time to archive the messages and prepare to launch the satellite that will blast off in 2011. Click on this link to learn more about the KEO Project, including WHY it's called the KEO. If you intend to make a submission, leave a comment letting me know.

Thinking about what kind of future the KEO Project might find in 50,000 years reminded me of the song "In The Year 2525" by Zager and Evans that was a hit in 1969. The lyrics (in case you've forgotten them or never heard them), are below the embedded video.




In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, and say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing to chew
Nobody's gonna look at you

In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you

In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long black tube

In the year 7510
If God's a-comin' he ought to make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
Guess it's time for the Judgement Day

In the year 8510
God's gonna shake his mighty head
He'll either say I'm pleased where man has been
Or tear it down and start again

In the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man's gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing

Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But through eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do or say
Is in the pill you took today ....(fading)

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