Marketplace All-in-One The human story behind a digital time capsule
Dec 2, 2025
David Ewalt, Editor-in-chief at Scientific American and creator of the Forbes email time capsule project, discusses the intriguing concept of sending messages to the future. He shares how he built a 20-year-delayed email system, overcoming technical challenges and changes in the internet landscape. With insights on the evolving nature of digital communication, Ewalt highlights the emotional impact of receiving these long-awaited messages. He reflects on personal growth through his own future correspondence, offering a fascinating glimpse into human connection across time.
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Communication Across Time Reveals New Questions
- The Forbes project explored communication across time as an intentional act, not just instant messaging or networking.
- David M. Ewalt framed time capsules as a way to study how information and relationships persist over decades.
Design Redundancy Into Long-Lived Systems
- Build redundancy across independent hosts to ensure long-term delivery of digital messages.
- Program servers to check each other and take responsibility if peers go dark so messages still send.
Diverse Hosts Hedge Long-Term Risk
- Hedging with diverse hosts reduces correlated failure risks over decades.
- Ewalt used Forbes, Yahoo, and a solo consultant to cover old media, big tech, and entrepreneurial stewardship.