The Best of Modern Human Culture

Don’t know what to write about? You should try out writing prompts.

Sure, it might turn into a rant (see below), but at least it gets you to write.

NASA is building a new Voyager spacecraft that will carry the best of modern human culture. What belongs onboard?

The best of modern human culture? First let’s look at those keywords:

Best. Modern. Human. 

Realistically, we won’t be able to ever find something fitting enough to be considered the “best”. Let’s ignore that one and we’re left with Modern Human. In other words, we’re asking “What defines a modern human?”. Luckily, I wrote a high school paper on this topic and we all know how credible our high school minds are. 

If I only could remember what I wrote…

I’m sure the meat of it was “possession of empathy”. But if we’re truly speaking modern, we’ve already created robots that can conjure up empathic reactions better than most humans. I mean, an AI just created it’s own original art that recently sold for half a million dollars at an auction. So now what? What defines us? 

Humans. We haven’t even been around that long- a blip on the time scale. Is it even worth being so proud of ourselves? As a matter of fact, yes. (See, it’s not all bad.) In our minute span of time, we’ve gained an immense amount of knowledge, we’ve created, we’ve invented, we’ve destroyed, we’ve discovered. I believe a fitting word to define humans is “Hunger”. We are persistent in achieving, learning, conquering, pleasing, and being satisfied. As I write this and eat my dinner, I burned the roof of my mouth shoving a slice of pizza in there. I was persistent in being satisfied - I must be fed!

What’s another one of our redeeming qualities? We’re narcissistic. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but admit it - we all want everyone to love us. I mean, we send out things to outer space in hopes of making contact with an alien species. 

Sure, if you receive and understand our messages, you are probably smarter than us and likely to find and eliminate us all. But we’re so damn proud of ourselves and we want the entire universe to know and acknowledge it! 

At least, that is what humans would do. Kill everyone, that is. So I think I can easily answer this question now - what belongs onboard that will carry the best of modern human culture? 

A hungry, narcissistic asshole. 

Please send them all.