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Ask HN: How to send a message to someone 20 years into the future?

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Ask HN: How to send a message to someone 20 years into the future?

#1
Hey there, so I just found out that I'm gonna be a dad soon, and I had this idea to create an email account for my future kid. I wanna send them random stuff like thoughts, facts, and stories until they hit 20.

But now I'm stuck trying to decide which email provider to use, and also wondering if email will still be a thing by then.

Anyway, I thought I'd turn to you folks on Hacker News for some advice. What do you think?

Re: Ask HN: How to send a message to someone 20 years into the future?

#4

Would they progressively access it or is this a time capsule that you want to add to until they are 20, but they get in one big dump?

Good question, if I use email would work because the date and subject of each email (still a huge inbox to read), but I didn't thought much in others alternatives. One could be markdown files, one file by each post sorted by date (kinda like an offline blog in obsidian.md).

Re: Ask HN: How to send a message to someone 20 years into the future?

#6
post #3

You can give your kid an email account, but you can’t make them check it. Have you considered gluing stuff into a scrapbook instead?

Yeah I'm considering scrapbook + polaroids (or printing pictures) and gluing them into the pages. I just don't think it will be practical as something digital.

Re: Ask HN: How to send a message to someone 20 years into the future?

#7
post #6
post #3

You can give your kid an email account, but you can’t make them check it. Have you considered gluing stuff into a scrapbook instead?

Yeah I'm considering scrapbook + polaroids (or printing pictures) and gluing them into the pages. I just don't think it will be practical as something digital.

On the other hand it will be more personal? Less ephemeral? Or is that just me being old fashioned?

Re: Ask HN: How to send a message to someone 20 years into the future?

#8
post #5

I think you're better of making a blog style (or similar) page for him...e-mail providers would eventually delete older emails to save space. Especially if you don't log into the account and it becomes active

Perhaps the blog you could store in the cloud somewhere, along with regular backups in the form of physical media? Over time, make backups on any other kind of new storage that comes along. I think redundancy would be key for this.
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