I believe it is time the the human race to join together and construct something magnificent and great, technologically humans have advanced tremendously since the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza or , yet the pyramids still strike more wonder and awe than any modern skyscraper or suspension bridge... Something greater than the most beautiful cathedrel or largest clock or tallest arch or tallest tower. Something that could stand the test of time and serve tribute to the great species of homo sapiens and something every modern man or woman could be proud of. Anyway just wonderig if anyone has any ideas about such an undertaking.

What could be done? Who would do it? Where would it be done?
I'd suggest an international space station, but we're already working on that... does that discount it?

It could not be the ISS, it will not hold up forever its life will be measured in decades not millennia and it isnt near perfect enough, nor does can it be viewed by the majority of the population. I was thinking more along the lines of a land based monument that could inspire awe and symmetry or peace. Maybe located in a more remote flatland area so it could stand out.

Ourselves.


leave a history that is ingrained in the world we live in, just like the egyptians engraved their history into rock.
leave out own planet and acheivements as an immortal monument to the human race, so that e.g

if we ever got wiped out *winkwink* then some alien race would find it and piece together our history, blah blah.
ok thats stupid but i was serious before that.

Although possibly a great building or statue constructed on the moon for instance would be comparable to the grandeur of the pyramids for the level of technology possesed by the builder, plus it wouldnt have to stand the whethering of wind or water and would surely last for millions of years.

yes thats exactly what i meant ... Our species is undoubyibly great, now we must construct something so to be remembered as being great.

Instead of spending all that time on something that will do no good except boost are egos and give us the false pretense that we left our mark on an infinitly growing universe, why don't we improve our world and our society. I know my old highschool could use some money, som parts of the school dont have tiles on the floor, and we always had leaks in the rain. Spend the money on REAL proplems, not some materialistic bullshit.

Good point.

Money is wasted in worse ways, ways that dont inspire or arent beautiful, how many billion dollars are spent every year on defense and arms to protect the nations of the world from each other, a million bucks for a smart bomb to stategically whipe out other humans on the other side of the world... Atleast money could be spent to accomplish a common goal and if such a goal were reached, it would be the hope that all nations could get boost to their ego and something to be proud of. Maybe such a thing could improve our world and our society. And then if tensions somehow eased through the building of the ultimate monument, then extra money that would have been used on military spending could be used to mend smaller problems in society. Something needs to happen to give everyone on the planet common ground.

You pointed out that the nations of the world are not on common grounds, that some countries do not like other countries. Why the hell would countries that have problems with each other join up and build a monument? Do you not understand? The entire world is not going to join together to make something meaningless. Now, why couldn't all of the countries join together and destroy poverty and starvation. Does this "monument to Humanity" have to be something materialistic? It would be much more satisfactory to wipe out aids, or figure out a way to stop overpopulation and polution so that we ("the great species of homosapiens") can live and survive on our planet.

Remember what happened last time when we tried to build something this big?

a little something called the tower of babylon?

ok :(

I'd think the greatest thing that we humans of today could leave behind as our legacy would be a Earth that is not polluted and as much open and free wilderness as possible so that in generations to come they too can behold the majasty of what nature can achieve, not what humans can destroy and build.

As soon as we humans leave the planet or go extinct, the earth will rebound. Forests will begin to creep into our cities, fish populations will rebound, the few species we leave living on the planet will evole into a whole slew of new ones, plate techtonics and glacial movements will bury all that we built and humans will be forgotten. Pollution will settle and become buried into ocean and eventually sucked back into the ever churning planet. 50 million years after we go, there'll be few traces left of us. Nature is the ultimate recycler, nnot even humans could do anything about that.

Beautifully stated, Thwert.

As soon as we humans leave the planet or go extinct, the earth will rebound. Forests will begin to creep into our cities, fish populations will rebound, the few species we leave living on the planet will evole into a whole slew of new ones, plate techtonics and glacial movements will bury all that we built and humans will be forgotten. Pollution will settle and become buried into ocean and eventually sucked back into the ever churning planet. 50 million years after we go, there'll be few traces left of us. Nature is the ultimate recycler, nnot even humans could do anything about that.

Did you ever think that it would be possible to wipe out "nature"? Forests won't creep back into our cities after we go extinct, because by the only reason why we would go extinct would be because we ran out of resources or killed all of them (and us). After human's leave or go extinct, the world will be depleted of "nature" and therefore the tree's would not be able to grow back because all of the trees would be extinct.

i often wonder if it is possible. Probably. The Legacy i would like to leave is a healthy planet, not just for humans b ut for all life.

WHy don't the polli's see it?
Any Australian associations involved in something like this? or international ones?
Hell, it doesn't help just talking about it

I dont think it would be possibly for humans to wipe out every bit of life on this planet, it is silly to say that humans will be the last to go,, since we are larger animals, we will surely go before the smaller invertibrits like slugs and cockroaches, since they require so much less energy to exist and can feed off of detritus , plus it would be near impossibly to wipe out the vast colonies of life that exist at the ocean bottom in the volcanic vent based ecosystems, and even if we soehow managed to take every other land based organism with us to extinction, surely the life in the sea could crawl out back onto the land when conditions are right and re-populate the continents. There have been five major mass extinctions and apparently we have entered the sixth one (http://www.well.com/user/davidu/extinction.html), yet after each of the five life rebounded and I dont think it will be any different for the current one.

rebounded, yet changed. i wonder if we have the right to change it, as the most intellegent species on this planet, you think it would be our responsibility to respect the planet

Collective detonation of 100 or so H-Bombs will certainly destroy all life and Earth itself.

Collective detonation of 100 or so H-Bombs will certainly destroy all life and Earth itself.


Yeah, that's constructive

The Yellowstone eruption should yield the power of multiple H-bomb detonations.

astroids impacts that have hit the planet in the past are thought to be on the magnitude of a million megatons of TNT or more and they failed to wipe out all life, if you take the largest H-bomb ever created about 100 megatons, and blow up 100 or them you'll only get a collected blast of 100*100 megatons or 10,000 megatons, which although would certainly affect life as we know it, it would not be forceful to completely destoy life.