The Human Ark

I am a Jewish woman by definition of my religion, a Science Teacher & Animal Cruelty Investigator by trade and a Wildlife Photographer by experience. In trying to navigate the world of politics, health crisis and the new "Cancel Culture" it occurred to me that all of this will one day be a part of history and what a sizable book that will be. Things like who is writing it, will it be complete, will it be censored were all things that were brought to mind. Will it include the Evolution of Man or Creationism, will a Holocaust section give way to a Black Lives Matter section? As I started to think of all that information and how it would be condensed, I developed a headache so I started to catalog my photographs instead.

I am 62 years of age and started taking photographs when I was in my early 20's. I bought an old yet functioning SLR camera from a pawnshop where I worked. I started taking photos of animals and that gradually led to people. I had visions of one day being a photo journalist traveling the world and photographing the conflicts that existed within far away countries. I began to look at my life within these photos and realized so much of who we are can be experienced thru photographs. Centuries from now a stranger could look at these photos and get a sense of who that person was. This lent to a crazy idea....What if a facility were created to house millions of other regular, average peoples photographs on a simple flash drive? We all know photographs of celebrities are always available but what about the neighbor next door or the teacher, pizza delivery person, garbage man, farmer, etc. Even the most outwardly boring person would have a story to tell by way of a photograph. The old saying of “A picture is worth a thousand words” is still true in this day and time. We are a visual people sometimes making judgements based solely on what we see. Even though at times this has led to trouble at other times it has served as a witness to events both positive and negative.

In the future, anyone could access a person’s life in photographs. An 'ARK' would house samples of average humanity within these flash drives. The more favorable things along with life’s daily adventures would tend to be chronicled thru these photographs. The flash drives could be housed in a bunker similar to our Seed Banks in Norway & Australia for preservation. There could be a small registration fee and that way everyone could afford to enter their flash drives. An entrant can provide as much or as little information to go along with their photographs. Obviously, there are the usual security issues such as how much personal information should be attached, should non familial members be allowed access and should the various governments gain access without notifying an entrant. Maybe I will get lucky and the idea as a whole might catch on. The conflict now is that only a big tech company could afford to help see this idea to fruition. I also realize I run the risk of my idea being taken away by that big tech company and marketed as their own. But as talk of colonizing the Moon and venturing to Mars are more of a reality, I believe that my Human Ark Project will be needed as well to show a sample of who we are , where we have been and where we will go as a people.