There is no human being alive who is immune to the past. As an extension of this concept, it could be said that much of the force that impedes the progress of mankind and reduces the wellbeing of all peoples is their own ignorance – the interest in gaining perspective on our surroundings is a thing that has brought mankind forward, and complacency once we felt that our perspective was sufficient has brought us to the brink. Mankind is far from its roots now, but there will be times when we are tried as a race especially in our current state, and when we cannot afford to lose focus on our wellbeing as a race, there again arises that observation – mankind will not be able to continue like before, by and large only selectively aware of its past, re-coloring the tapestry of time and space for our amusement and short-term gain. Within this document is contained a plan for the education of mankind on the most fundamental tenets of its shared history, and what may be thought to be a partial roadmap to the vast and nuanced genome of ideas which interconnect the human condition: a suite for the preservation and consistent observation of not just the historical art of mankind but its fundamental meaning, that story which it has to tell so that humans may better understand themselves.

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Given the broad scope of human creative achievement, it has been deemed impossible to contain the breadth of works necessary to truly explore the human condition within the amount of space available. Thus, infrastructure which has already been installed within the living quarters of the inhabitants of the interstellar caravan will be hooked up to a server architecture which will contain information about the creative life of mankind on Earth. In addition to this, interactive experiences which will attract the attention of the inhabitants as well as help them to be fully immersed in the original context and meaning of the pieces will be constructed – four of such reconstructions will be illustrated within this document in order to give perspective on the idea. The interactive media will be available in the form of immersive virtual reality experiences, available from the desk or bed of any residence on any ship.

The first of the four selected experiences will cover the Potawatomi Creation Myth, an oral tradition passed down by the Potawatomi peoples of North America during the height of their civilization. The myth is important to maintain preservation and awareness in its regard because it teaches the values of cooperation, reverence for the ideas of others, and the value of the impetus of creation. The myth will be taught in schools as well as the context of the lives of sovereign Native American nations until their downfall and/or integration. In order to help express the idea to students, a game will be created which will be available and occasionally utilized, but never graded. The game will be built from the ideas of the myth – students will work as a unit in order to provide themselves and each other with the ability to create beautiful and functional things from various resources. Additionally, the students will be able to observe the success of others by turning their areas into virtual collaborative hangout spaces, where they will be able to selectively allow others to re-shape the world or simply enjoy what they have made. This will help to ingrain all of the values of the work into children, helping them to gain perspective on their own minds and those of others through collaboration and observation of each other’s works.

The second selected work is the Mughal architectural masterpiece: The Taj Mahal. In this case, the work is representative of the power of human love, as well as the beauty which can be created from bounty and respect for expertise from across cultural lines. For this purpose, the Taj will be re-created in three-dimensional form and converted into a virtual meeting place for people of all ages and for a number of different events – its grounds will be used for virtual cultural festivals, but will also largely be available for groups of any size and from any ship, and even for individuals. An emphasis will be placed on using the space as a cultural landmark, and information about the history of the tomb and its context will be placed all over the grounds, occasionally hidden, in order to encourage people to find, consume and discuss the Taj as it was used many years ago. Arts festivals held there will focus on the creation of complex works which contain motifs related to love and tolerance, and culture festivals will encourage visitors to meet and mutually learn about each other from across the entire fleet, while also being proud and upholding the traditions of their people from back on Earth.

The Taj will also be available for scholastic study, allowing for college students to study the masterwork combination of Persian and Indian motifs and the mastery of geometric and spatial qualities in the arrangement of the tomb grounds. The structure will be used as an example of mastery in the realm of architecture, which is an art which may be foreign to those born on the ships. Comparisons will be drawn between the Taj and other tombs which were created before it, especially its predecessor, Humanyun’s tomb – discussion about the similarities and differences between different architectures and arrangements will be encouraged.

The third selected piece will be Richard Wagner’s <i>Der Ring Des Nibelungen </i>cycle. This piece represents the complexity of human interactions, as well as the dangers of hubris, greed and prejudice. To this end, a yearly festival will be put on showcasing Wagner’s play in the way that he intended it to be played. In the days during and surrounding the festival, a model city from somewhere in the world at the time that the play was written will be generated and those who partake will be given the opportunity to spend their free time as citizens of that city, roaming and touring the town and becoming familiar with its places. News installations, flyers and newspapers will be available within the city which will contain information about the events within the city and its surroundings at the time, allowing for the people to further familiarize themselves with the context of the play and the world that it entered into.

Students will also be encouraged to learn the play in both its virtual and physical forms - performances of the play virtually will have human actors, who will be trained in the art of opera in both the virtual and physical worlds. This musical training will ensure that interested parties are aware of the usage of leitmotifs and other unusual concepts which are employed within the operas. Comparison with other contemporary works will allow for music students to understand the finer differences between pieces of the era and the abundance of exploration which was occurring at that time within the field of music.

The final of the four selected pieces is Atari’s 1980 arcade game <i>Missile Command</i>, which serves as a representative of the terrible power of fear and the effects of a society which is built around the power to destroy and the fear of being destroyed. For this, copies of the game will be made functional and playable within the virtual reality. Additionally, a double-blind game will be created – teams of players will be put together anonymously and pitted against other teams of players, mutually trying to protect resources from the other teams. Information about enemy movements will be vague and often inaccurate of sensational, and the goal of the game will not be to subjugate the other team, but to end the game with the largest possible amount of resources. At the end of the game, a detailed report will be provided in graphical and text format regarding what was actually being said and done on the other team, showing the players the results of misinformation and paranoia on the virtual war which was created by the game and perpetrated by the players. Each game will be relatively low-maintenance but last over several weeks, conjoined with the player’s social network. The game will help to teach its players the horror of mutually-assured destruction and the necessity of dialogue and honesty between cultures.

Arcade games will also be gathered and made part of a summit on programming and design of games – participants will create simple games limited to the purview of an arcade game in order to help them fully understand the scope of their games and how to best fill the game space with the basic ideas of their message. This will help designers of various kinds to understand the concept of keeping with a major idea with their work and designing their entire piece around that idea in the most efficient and understandable way possible. It will also help to ensure that the state of the art continues to be advanced even in these days, so that it can be said that even after what has been done, when the humans step off of their ships for the first time in centuries, they will be better than when they entered them.