Time capsules in new issue of GOOD magazine

I wrote an article about time capsules for the new issue of GOOD magazine.

At first blush, time capsules seem like they are about defining who we are at the moment of creation. We compile this stuff in a coffee can (or a state-of-the-art, acid-resistant, stainless steel tube filled with argon gas and welded shut) to understand what we care about personally and, by extension, what things mean to us as a species. But really, we are looking to the future and guessing how people will live in 50 or 100 or 5,000 years. Time capsules force us to express our guesses with material objects.