THE
MUSEUM
OF
IDEAS
The Exhibition of Ideas Going to the Moon
In partnership with LifeShip, an organization created to make space accessible to everyone, The Museum of ideas is creating a capsule of ideas.
The ideas will be a small part of a big mission to preserve a part of us in space. To do this, we are gathering ideas, to send to the moon to be eternalized. The mission to the moon is real----the project is also a symbolic gesture, a testament to ideas and to the thinkers who receive them.
The Moon Capsule Interviews
Release Statement: The Museum of Ideas Moon Gallery Exhibition
The Museum of Ideas Sends nearly 50 Ideas to The Moon
In November 2024 (Launch update posted December 4, 2024: Mission planning has changed for LifeShip to January or February 2025; stay tuned!), The Museum of Ideas will send 49 interviews with thinkers, creators, and artists of our day to the moon–in a moon capsule of ideas. The ideas will fly on the SpaceX Falcon 0 Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost mission with LifeShip.
The destination is Mare Crisium, Moon. Mare Crisium is visible by the naked human eye, from earth–if you look up in the night sky.
Why should you care?
In 1934, walls were moving, ceilings were dropping, lights were changing as working people transformed the Museum of Modern Art at West 53 Street in New York “into a completely new modern background for the Exhibition of Machine Art.” It opened Wednesday, March 7, 1934.
The objects displayed in that exhibition were the machines of the day. Simple, everyday objects. Technology that people used every day, except in the museum, they were framed as art. Agnieszka Pilat, an artist who I’ve crossed paths with, tipped me off to the exhibition a few years ago.
The everyday objects in the Exhibition of Machine Art sat on natural Belgian linen, and canvas painted pastel blue, pink, and gray.
Water faucets. Springs. Gears. Cables. Carpet sweepers.
Objects were selected not only for their “usefulness” but also for their beauty of form, finish and materials.
Wire. Watch-springs. Ball bearings.
The exhibit was stunning in its simplicity—calling to light the form and the beauty of everyday objects.
Form and beauty that was invisible to the everyday eye—-after all, it blended in with everyday life. They were just everyday objects.
Until they weren’t.
Until they were placed on Belgian linen in an exhibition.
In the same way the Exhibition of Machine Art called to light the form and beauty of everyday machines in 1934, The Museum of Ideas Moon Gallery, “The Capsule Interviews,” exhibition will call to light the form and beauty of an idea in 2024.
Ideas are forming all around us, all of the time.
Every day.
In an era where some claim that imagination and critical thinking are taking a back seat to the problems of the day, new ideas are actually forming everywhere. The solutions to the problems of our day are forming everywhere. But we don’t always pay attention to them. They can blend into the content overwhelm around us. Like everyday objects do.
But there is form and beauty to these ideas.
I interviewed nearly 50 entrepreneurs, thinkers, artists and creators who shared an idea with me.
Ideas are described sometimes as sparks, and seeds, or a function of our brain. They are mysterious, and inviting and with or without action–(depending on who you ask)-- they are valuable in and of themselves. They represent something essential about us as human beings.
As humans—we’re able to access —and even generate—these mysterious sparks.
The Moon Capsule Ideas, won’t be placed on Belgian linen, but they will be stored indefinitely, in a synthetic amber material, and shipped to the moon, preserved as an exhibition of today’s every day ideas.
The ideas that when implemented, if they are, may tip the future in our favor.
What does this mean for industry, business or the community you and I have in common—humanity, that is?
It means that in spite of narratives that may have us believe otherwise…. we’re not stuck. We’re not coming up short. Our imaginations will take us far if we allow them to.
In the interviews I heard ideas about protecting the integrity of science, human creativity, our connectedness, the future of sweetness, how our buildings and structures might evolve (and grow) around us, what might or (might not be) out there in the universe, how long we might live one day, and how we’re likely to continue to lead healthier lives.
I also heard about how we might be—not at the end—-but rather, at the beginning of infinity.
I also heard about how beautiful the song Landslide is. We feel something when we hear that song. It's unclear as yet if a machine—even those simple and beautiful machines around us, will ever feel what we feel when we listen to a song like Landslide.
How can you learn more if you want to?
Continue to visit The Museum of Ideas for updates and join the mailing list today.
The exhibition will open online midsummer ‘24.
What can you expect?
The exhibition will be a curated collection of The Moon Capsule interviews. A sampling of the 49 interviews will be published on The Museum of Ideas website and in associated publications.
I’ll cull through the interviews and share themes and insights with you in regular updates.
As in the Exhibition of Machine Art, the display of the interviews will be simple. Consider them to be shared in ‘garage band’ style. Deconstructed and real. You’ll listen-in to the interview as we had it. All interviewees were asked the same questions. So it's not a ‘podcast’ but more of a questionnaire.The format was a 15-minute Zoom interview – or pieces and parts of those.
Any transcripts I share will be lightly edited for readability.
The project is a collaboration between The Museum of Ideas and LifeShip.
The mission of LifeShip is to make space accessible to all and to ensure the continuation of humanity into the far future.
The mission of The Museum of Ideas is to promote emerging thought and (human) creators, thinkers, and their ideas.
I'll meet you where ideas are,
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--Shannon Mullen O'Keefe
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With gratitude to the contributors:
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Alexander Rose
Former Director for 27 years of The Long Now Foundation; Rose is currently working on the digital preservation of data.
Allison Duettmann
CEO and President, at Foresight Institute, a Bay area organization founded in 1986 to advance science and technology for beneficial futures.
Amy Karle
Amy Karle is an artist and designer, exploring the implications of new emerging and exponential technologies on humanity, how they impact us, our bodies, and our beings.
Avi Loeb
Avi Loeb is a professor of science at Harvard University, the Director of the Institute for Theory and former Chair of the Astronomy Department, who founded the Director of the Black Hole Initiative. He is a member of the President's Council on Science and Technology in the White House, former member and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies.
Ben Haldeman
Founder of LifeShip.
Bill Diamond
President and CEO of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. SETI is an acronym which stands for “the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.” The institute focuses on research, education, and outreach related to space exploration and answering that question, “Are we alone in the universe?”
Brooke Shanae Lehman
Brooke Lehman is a steward of spaces and bringing people together and an employee experience manager of a company that's doing internal communications.
Chris Habachy
Chris Habachy is a general partner at a venture capital fund based in New York State and is co-founder of Galactic Legacy Labs.
Cornelia Kawann
From Switzerland, Corneila Kawann is an electrical engineer and she is also a personal energy strategist who likes to combine electrical energy with our personal energy.
Creon Levit
Creon Levit lives in Southern California and worked at NASA for thirty-two years. Now he works for Planet Labs.
Cyndi Coon
Cyndi Coon is an applied experiential Futurist.
Daniel Fox
Daniel Fox is the author of The Feel the Wild and Founder and Chief Visionary for Future Space.
Deborah Sass
Deborah Sass is the founding partner of Space Hero, and the founder of SpaceVerse, the universe for space.
Don Pickering
Don Pickering, is a tech entrepreneur who has worked in space and subsea and robotics. He now works on an AI platform for sustainability. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington.
Don Tipping
Don Tipping is a farmer and business owner and plant breeder in southwestern Oregon, where he runs Ciske Seeds, a farm-based organic seed company.
Egbert Edelbroek
Egbert Edelbrock founder and CEO of Space Board United Company that is working on safely enabling human reproduction in space and improving fertility treatment on earth.
Emil C. Luth
Emil C. Luth was born and raised in Denmark. He has a background in art exhibitions, curating and museum work, and now works on energy technology and keeps a keen eye on sustainability efforts.
Fergus Klein
Fergus Klein is the associate director for the Creative Destruction Lab space program. Once a mechanical engineer he now works in business development and has fallen in love with this idea of big picture thinking and utilizing space for the benefits of the betterment of humankind.
Frank White
Frank White is Founder and President of the Human Space program. He is involved at many levels on the issue of space exploration and increasingly space migration and has authored multiple books on the topic. His most well-known book is called The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution.
Henk Rogers
Henk Rogers majored in computer science, minored in dungeons and dragons in college and wrote the first role-playing video game The Black Onyx, securing the rights to distribute Tetris and founder of The Tetris Company. Today he spends most of his time fighting climate change.
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Hillary Sanctuary
Originally from Canada, Hillary now lives in Switzerland. She has a PhD in theoretical physics on the topic of modified theories of gravity. She is now a science outreach professional where she promotes the research of her organization with media rich stories.
Iwona Fluda
Iwona Fluda is based in Switzerland and is the founder of the Ministry of Creativity Lt.
Jane Metcalfe
Jane Metcalfe, started WIRED magazine with Louis Rossetto. Now, she thinks about the next stage of the digital revolution— neo-biological revolution.
Jonathan Knowles
Jonathan Knowles is an explorer, scientist and technologist, involved in a variety of technology and science domains.
Lakshmi Karan
Lakshmi Karan, is part of the team of Lunarc with a mission to democratize access and development of space.
Lauren Dickinson
Lauren Dickinson is an abstract contemporary artist. She also runs transformational retreats with her company Orion Retreats.
Mark Rubin
Mark Rubin lives in the suburbs of Washington, DC. and is co-founder of Project Honeylight.
Monika Jiang
Monika Jiang is a writer, facilitator, and community builder, cultivating third places for dialogue, connection, and community around the shared experience of loneliness.
Nick Searra
Nick Searra is based in Cape Town, South Africa. He started a foundation called the Interstellar Foundation–the voyager of golden records.
Nova Spivack
Nova Spivack is the chairman and co-founder of the Arch Mission Foundation.
Phillip Koellinger
Philip Koellinger is a professor in economics who co-founded DeSci Labs and the DeSci Foundation.
Rachel Lyons
Former Executive Director of Space for Humanity, Rachel now serves on the Board of Directors for the organization. She also spends her time coaching visionary leaders.
Ralph Horat
Ralph grew up in a small mountain village in the Swiss Alps, he is a science fiction enthusiast, and loves ancient mysteries, mythologies. He has a background in business and economics, is the founder of the nextgen village project, where he and team aim to build a village of the future in the Swiss Alps that serves as a living lab to prototype and test place for new groundbreaking technologies where they are also experimenting with a new decentralized monitoring governance system.
Richelle Ellis
Richelle is an artist, astronaut and curator. She designs artworks both for earth, but also made for space flight.
S. Pete Worden
Simon Pete Warden is an astronomer by background. Worden spent 29 years as a US Air Force Space Officer, and retired in 2003. He worked as a college professor at the University of Arizona, served as a Congressional fellow and worked for the US. Senate. He also spent 9 years as the director of NASA's Ames Research Center. He continues to dedicate time to the search for life in the universe.
Sakiko Reuterskiold
Sakiko is Japanese-Swedish, and grew up in Belgium and London. She is the founder of Nomosu.
Sarah Kalmeta
Sarah Kalmeta, is also known as Sarah the pivoter. Sarah is a professional speaker, podcast host, and poet who helps transform perspectives.
Simon Drake
Simon Drake is the CEO of two companies, Space Ventures Investors which raises capital to invest in innovative space businesses and the Lunar Resources Registry which creates new innovative maps of the moon.
Skinder Hundal &
Skinder Hundal works in the world of creative production. He is currently the Director of Art for the British Council which is in cultural relations development across the world. He also chairs a cultural leadership board aiming to nurture new leaders, new generation thinking, and to diversify how decisions are made in municipalities, and how those cities connect worldwide. He also volunteers on various projects across the UK and internationally.
Shiva Lynn Burgos
Shiva Lynn Burgos is an artist, curator and researcher from Brooklyn, New York. She now lives in Paris, London, and Papua New Guinea. Her diverse practice ranges from using very elemental materials including bronze and iron all the way to futuristic technology.
Stacey Murphy
Stacey Murphy is the founder of Dreaming Earth, which is a venture capital studio, incubating startups in the architectural world who are building living materials so that buildings can grow themselves.
Stephanie Chen
Stephanie Chen is from many parts of the world. She is American, and Chinese by heritage. She now lives in London. Her passion is in longevity, impact strategy, impacting [wellbeing] and health and arts and culture. She is also co-founder of HOUSE OF AEON.
Thomas Reemer
Thomas Reemer is the creator and founder of Space Hero which is the world's first global competition show to send somebody—- that humankind will vote for—- to space.
Thomas Kehler
Thomas Kehler has a background in applied physics, a PhD and a minor in physics and ferromagnetism. He also has a strong interest in linguistics, that is, how people acquire languages and has been involved in the application of artificial intelligence to either physics or language for the last 50 years. He is currently the CEO of crowdsmart.ai.
Torsten Hoffmann
Torsten Hoffman is an independent filmmaker. He creates documentaries that are techno-optimistic. His latest documentary, Fortitude will be released in the summer of 2024.
Viola Ketelsen
Viola is a city maker based and born in Kiel, Germany.
VJ Bala
VJ Bala is short Vijayant. Vijayant was born in Calcutta, India, and grew up in the Middle East and now lives in Canada and partly in Guatemala.
Zach Bell
Zach Bell is an entrepreneur and a storyteller and a philosopher, and a perpetual optimist. He is founder of Return and MyPlace and currently resides in Baja, Mexico.
[non-human] ChatGPT4 ; Human interlocutor Karel Golta
GPT-4 is OpenAI’s most advanced chatbot system as of June 2024.
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moon capsule ideas exhibition
Exhibition Statement
The Museum of Ideas, in partnership with LifeShip, completed a series of in-depth interviews with a range of thinkers from diverse fields. We spoke with artists, entrepreneurs, professors, and others working to advance their ideas with the aim of capturing and including a wide range of perspectives for the gallery. The interviews were conducted between the months of February and June 2024 with a total of forty-nine thinkers.
Interview recruitment
LifeShip and The Museum of Ideas recruited an array of creative thinkers from their networks.
Interviews
Virtual interviews were conducted on behalf of LifeShip and The Museum of Ideas. The exhibit curator followed the same interview guide. This guide is available upon request.
Interviews were conducted online. Each interview lasted approximately fifteen minutes. The Museum of Ideas provided a transcript of each interview to be included in the moon capsule and interviews were transcribed by Zoom. Interviewees were not compensated for their participation. They are not representative of a larger demographic or geographic group; instead, they are intended to represent a sample of the ideas of our day.
Lightly edited transcripts of a curated range of interviews will be published via The Museum of Ideas. [See also: The Story of the Moon Capsule Gallery: The Museum of Ideas + LifeShip Moon Mission; forthcoming July 2024.]
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This is the first phase of an ongoing The Museum of Ideas — Ideas Exhibition. Please be in touch if you are interested or willing to sponsor the effort (or you know someone who may be interested) or if you know a(n emerging) thinker, whose idea you think may inspire us.
Nominate them to be featured in The Museum of Ideas gallery.
Ideas will be preserved for our inspiration (and for the future.)
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