AdamL212/FlickrThe time machine probably won't look like thisIs this the best art project ever?
Future Time Machine: Future Time Machine seeks to create a dialogue with the past and future by harnessing the power of compounded interest to amass enough money to create a fully functional time machine. An investment of $1000 will be put in a legal trust for 500 years. Assuming a modest 4% annual return, the investment will be approximately 328 billion dollars in the year 2515, at which point it will be spent on scientific research and the construction of a time machine. First stop for the time machine will be 2015 with a reception for the time travelers. There will be a variety of speakers lecturing on the ethics of time travel and what the future may have in store.
The steps of this project are:
- Get $1000
- Put in a trust invested in (presumably) an index fund
- In 500 years, have someone build a time machine with the money
- Back in 2015, have party, see people from the future
WHAT COULD GO WRONG?!?! Actually, though, thinking about what kinds of things could go wrong is what makes this so great. As a financial journalist, my first question is: who is going to get rich off stealing this money, and how long is it going to last? My bet is 20 years. And it will be stolen by the lawyer in charge of the trust. But who knows!
The project was just given a grant by the Idea Fund, part of a Houston-based arts group called Diverse Works. Idea Fund gives grants to projects that are "artist-generated, or artist-centered projects that exemplify the unconventional, interventionist, conceptual, entrepreneurial, participatory, or guerrilla artistic practices that occur outside of the traditional frameworks of support."
(h/t Ben Davis)