Images of wildlife, landscapes, toys, disaster scenes, vacation spots, shops and classic cars were interspersed among faces and sayings such as "Carpe Diem" and "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."
In the mix were pictures of McDonald's French fries, bull fighting, Samurai swords and Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
Rays of blue, white and green light crisscrossed the canyon at Jemez pueblo in the US state of New Mexico while a blazing laser beam sent digitised time capsule data into outer space.
Projected images formed shifting collages on canyon walls at the opening of a three-day event highlighting some of the more than 70,000 poems, stories, videos, songs, and pictures uploaded to the Yahoo Time Capsule.
"Submissions range from the intensely personal to greetings for alien life forms, including almost anything you could imagine," said Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.
"This project is a fascinating example of social media at its finest, highlighting the culture of generosity that exists and proliferates on the web today."
Yahoo streamed the "environmental media display" on its website and it was to be replayed Friday in the popular virtual world Second Life, where animated "avatar" residents could make contributions.
More than 1.3 million individuals have visited the Time Capsule website to peruse offerings, leave comments, or make digitized contributions since the project was launched on October 9, according to Yahoo.
Content for the "first-ever electronic anthropology project" to document human life has been sent from more than 200 countries, Yahoo said.
The time capsule holds philosopher Deepak Chopra's thoughts about "how to end a war one person at a time;" a debut comic book by action film director Jon Woo, and tributes to late Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin.
Submissions from less famous people included images of a sonogram of a Portuguese couple's first son; a man praying at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and a handprint in the sand in Egypt.
Yahoo said it would accept time capsule contributions through November 8, when Yahoo said it will donate 100,000 dollars to charities "whose mission is to heal the world."
The time capsule is to be buried at secret spot at Yahoo's campus in Sunnyvale, California, and a copy of the contents will be given to the Smithsonian Institution's recording archives in Washington.
Yahoo plans to open the time capsule when it celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2020.