Future You

How would you like to send an email to the future? Now you can.

Have you heard of those 'time capsules' that are planted in a prominent location, to be opened 10, 20 years in the future? Malaysia's Petronas Twin Towers has a time capsule containing a message from our previous Prime Minister Mahathir, to be opened in 2020 (or something like that). Other time capsules, like the one at the Singapore Science Centre, contain the latest technology gadgets of today. So when it is opened in the next decade, everyone can have a good laugh at how stupid we were.

If prominent politicians can leave a message for the future, why not us? That is the idea behind FutureMe, a free e-mail time capsule service. Basically you enter your email address (or other people's), the message, and the date which you want it to be sent. It may sound funny, weird, strange, etc. But it is actually a very good exercise and I urge all of you to try it.

When you actually start writing a letter to your future self, you are forced to be introspective. You have to really analyse your life and confront all the present issues. Imagine opening the email a decade from now and laughing at how innocent we were! It therefore becomes proof that we have grown and became wiser over time.

I wrote an email to myself, to be sent in 2016. It was a great exercise to write the entire message, and I wrote about my life, my aspirations, my loves, and my expectations for my future me. I can't share the full contents of my email, but you can read the first paragraph:

I do hope this email finds you well. How is global warming doing? At this time, scientists are getting worried that they have underestimated the effects of greenhouse effect, et al. I wonder... are you reading this email from an igloo?

There is no guarantee that the website will survive that long, so the creators are asking for donations. And we can login in the future to change our e-mail address, just in case World War 3 wipes out Gmail before 2016. I highly encourage everyone to invest a little time for this time capsule - it might just change your life.