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Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
What about a million years?
- sharemywin 8y agoAre you limiting the discussion to positive outcomes? A friend on mine used to say if you can't be famous you might as well be infamous. I don't really buy in to that, but some people might need clarification.
- seniorivn 8y agofor million it's simple, do anything, butterfly effect will do the rest for you.
- LeoSolaris 8y agoPioneering scientific discoveries and engineering new technologies are the only two lasting, positive impacts one can ever have in life. Anything else is either non-impactful or simply cultural changes, which are neutral to our species in the long run. What we can do as a species and what we actually understand about the universe are the two fundamental aspects of humanity that have any significance just ten generations later. And of the two, learning something new about the universe and sharing it is far more significant of an impact. It will last longer because of the nature of science to build upon previous discoveries.
- mchannon 8y agoAlthough it's only been about 800 years, Genghis Khan might form a worthy counterexample to that assertion, judging by his disproportionate impact on the human genome.
- timfrietas 8y agoReligion and/or morality is a cultural change that has definitely proven to be not neutral to our species in the long run, so far.
- Retric 8y agoI can't tell if you are suggesting Religion has been a positive or a negative. Which I think is the point where there are people making arguments in either direction, suggesting it's mostly a wash.
- mikert5671 8y agowrite a groundbreaking philosophy book like nietzsche
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y agoWhich book? And what impact did it have?
- zhdc1 8y ago"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." - Benjamin Franklin
- boxbag 8y agoHow about a million years?
- maratd 8y agoFocus on leaving a high fidelity fossil.
- pvaldes 8y agoThe first people making a fosselfie would make a dent for sure. In the rock.
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoThere's some interesting developments in that area, on the one side about leaving warnings at nuclear waste sites (which probably won't work, archeologists were warned about death and curses and such and still went into Tutanchamun's tomb. IIRC some died from a mold spore active in there), on the other about preserving knowledge for the ages (e.g. sapphire disks, 3d / holographic storage). I don't feel like there's a working solution yet, or at least not a high-tech one - chipping out a granite block and keeping it relatively shielded from the weather still seems like the safest bet.
- majewsky 8y ago> archeologists were warned about death and curses and such and still went into Tutanchamun's tomb. IIRC some died from a mold spore active in there Correct. I saw a documentary last week about a 3000-year-old grave in Syria where they pumped in fresh air for a week or so before going in to get rid of the fungal spores in the air. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_pharaohs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_pharaohs
- 8y ago
- d--b 8y agoDonate your sperm thrice a day for the rest of your life. Pretty sure one of your descendant will have a significant impact in 1000 years.
- ewretgg 8y agoChances are, you won't be remembered in 1000 years. And you'll be too dead to enjoy it if you are. Are you sure you have come to terms with that? Lots of people I meet here are obsessed with "making their dent in the universe" and I think some of it is driven by the fear of death. That said, if you just want to better the lives of future generations, there are plenty of things you can do now. Give money to good causes. Get involved in politics. Plant a tree.
- HankB99 8y agoDo you need to be remembered to be significant? I consider them to be two different things. For me the answer to both is to do what I can to have a positive impact on those around me. I consider my efforts as a scout leader to be the most likely thing I have done to affect our future, though I doubt I will be remembered much beyond the next generation.
- ewretgg 8y agoYou don't need to be remembered to be significant. I'm trying to see if the OP knows the difference. I think it's great your a scout leader. It will help shape the lives of children who will outlive you. And you're doing it out of a healthy desire to help others, and not a vain quest to secure your fame after your death.
- melling 8y agoDoing something that’s significant in 1000 years and being remembered are two different things. A few thousand people trying to be Elon Musk, Edison, Ford, Carnegie, Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates can definitely do work that will impact the world for generations to come. If you want to live on long after you’re dead, create a university, or research institution Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Howard Hughes Medical Institute... Oxford University is almost 1000 years old.
- thrav 8y agoGenuine question that might result in some interesting discussion. Is giving money to causes today, the best strategy? Would it be better to amass wealth in your own name, and then deploy it more strategically later in life? This has the added advantage of the potential to self-fund an endeavor that might do good and increase your capacity to give down the line? If you trust yourself not to fall into greed as you grow older, what’s the downside of this, besides missing out on some tax breaks? I guess the real answer is why not both. Was thinking of some of the examples of “little old lady makes largest donation to X after a life of saving”.
- euparkeria 8y agoA good time capsule.
- Simulacra 8y agoThat is an extremely long time line, and the likelihood that anyone reading this will do something that significant, aside from genocide, I don’t think is going to be all that significant then.
- acheron 8y agoJudging by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1018 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1018, the answer is "lead a battle" or "found an abbey".
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoThat does make me wonder how many of the buildings we build today will still be around in 1000 years. How does steel and concrete compare to (frequently restored / repaired) brick and mortar (said abbey) or just brick (the artificial mountains that are the Pyramids)?
- dogma1138 8y agoAlmost none and it’s not (Only) because of the construction method. Today buildings are cheap which means that there is no incentive to keep them around until they become historically significant. That 1000 year old abbey on a hill somewhere likely used to be the only masonry building for 100s of miles for a good chunk of its history and by the time masonry buildings became cheap enough to be mass produced to be considered a commodity it has gained sufficient historical value to be preserved for it. It’s also interesting to think about historic property laws. Land ownership is relatively a new concept and in many places you still cannot wholly own the land. In the past you often couldn’t tear down a building and build a new one as you would lose well essentially your squatting rights. Today however land is just as much of a commodity as ahytbing else which adds another factor that can against the value of the building.
- melling 8y ago... or you could start a University like Oxford. It doesn't matter if the buildings are gone in 1000 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1096 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1096
- dougmwne 8y agoI've answered this question for myself. I work in support of environmental protection and sustainability. In a thousand years maybe we will still have a habitable Earth with diverse species and people living on it to appreciate our effort to make it endure. Though I suggest even if you narrow your time horizon to the lives of your children you'll still find some worthy things to do with your life.
- marktangotango 8y agoYou kind of skipped over it, but I’ve solved this by transferring the gift I received, by having children of my own, and raising them in a warm loving environment, teaching them empathy and kindness. I posit this is a worthy thing in itself.
- HiroshiSan 8y agoYou sound like a wonderful parent. From my point of view, life is suffering and until you can justify passing that suffering down, having children is a purely selfish desire.
- dustingetz 8y agoTeach a poor child how to read
- yehohanan7 8y agoinvent a time machine
- xfactor973 8y agoThere’s plenty of food bearing trees that would live that long. Olive, chestnut and monkey puzzle come to mind. Plant a food forest for your ancestors
- jstx 8y agoBecause I'm a pedant, I think you meant descendants?
- mars4rp 8y agoIf this a serious concern of yours, you are doing immortality project. Read Denial of death https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Death https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Death
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- bcoates 8y agoIconoclasm. Find something dumb people have been fighting over for a few hundred years or more, and blow it up.
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoISIS is trying to do that, the world isn't really fond of what they're trying to do.
- anon1253 8y ago"Initiate a process, to create an environment in which the solution will occur independently of yourself" — Talos Principle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmqA3pGe3Og&t=239s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmqA3pGe3Og&t=239s
- jaddood 8y agoBe crazy. Do crazy things like Elon Musk does. Everything remembered was not ordinary.
- akud 8y agoYou want to work on something that will inspire people to inspire people to inspire people to create. Art, new ways of thinking. I think the _My Struggle_ series by Karl Ove Knaussgard will have changed the way people conceive of the written word over future generations.
- tomcooks 8y agoPlant a bunch of trees. In 1000 they will be a forest, providing everyone with fruit, shade and lowering the temperature by 4 degrees on average.
- panarky 8y ago1000 years ago saw the use of gunpowder in combat [0], the Norman conquest of England [1], and the invention of paper money [2]. Assuming you're not going to start a war or a religion, what kind of weapon or financial innovation could you invent that will change the world in a millennium? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gunpowder#Gunpowder_Age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gunpowder#Gunpowder... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknote#Early_Chinese_paper_money https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknote#Early_Chinese_paper_m...
- sndean 8y agoMost won't like this answer. I think people dislike the idea of a nobody impacting world history. But, if I take "today" to mean literally one day, sadly I think assassinating a world leader is one of the few ways to significantly impact the world 1000 years from now. (An example [0]). It would have to precipitate a major event though (something like a world war). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavrilo_Princip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavrilo_Princip
- conductr 8y agoAlso sadly - my initial thought was something similar... time bomb with a 1000 year fuse.
- afoot 8y agoHave children. (and hope for plenty of grandchildren, great grandchildren etc) 1,000 years is time for a lot of generations to pass. Sure, your particular DNA might only make up some small amount of someone walking around in 1,000 years, but that is an action you can take in your lifetime that will be significant. Bonus points if you educate them well and give them the resources to be as successful as possible.
- LyndsySimon 8y agoI agree, but I think DNA is irrelevant. Imparting your values on the next generation is the most durable thing an individual can do. The way I see it, it's a multiplier. I can only do so much in one lifetime, but I can raise my children to value the same things as me, and thereby guide the impact that they and their children will have on the world.
- kyoob 8y agoThis seems like as good a time as any to trot out Beatles 3000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z2vU8M6CYI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z2vU8M6CYI
- OrganicMSG 8y agoMake or commission an observational sculpture from nature, a bust being the most common example, carved in stone or cast in metal.
- antocv 8y agoBuy a bunch of radioactive substances, collect them from firealarms. Put the radioactive substance in awkward lines, so it resembles some form of writing. Bury the radioactive substance, wait 1000 years for curious questions of how it got there and what it means.
- nyxtom 8y agoProduce trash
- conductr 8y agoColonize a planet, name colony after yourself
- rhplus 8y agoYou could build a megalithic concrete structure like the Hoover Dam. https://www.quora.com/If-humans-vanished-from-the-earth-how-long-is-it-estimated-that-the-Hoover-Dam-will-hold-up https://www.quora.com/If-humans-vanished-from-the-earth-how-...
- anExcitedBeast 8y agoOxford has a project on impactful careers you might find interesting. https://80000hours.org/ https://80000hours.org/
- Aardwolf 8y agoDue to the butterfly effect, any tiny thing you do today has significant impact in 1000 years
- craigsmansion 8y agoContribute to Emacs. And I'm only half joking. If any pieces of software we use now are actually going to be used in 1000 years, Emacs is very high on my list of survivors. In a million years? Architect the intelligence that supplants us? (unless that intelligence turns out to be Emacs, then see answer 1)
- hprotagonist 8y ago“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.” Neibuhr, "The Irony of American History" (1952).
- garettmd 8y agoI agree with a lot of people here that there's a distinction between doing something significant and being remembered for it. Addressing the latter, though, I think it's kind of a waste of time. Many here are pointing out certain inventions or innovations or constructions or whatever from 1000 years ago that people today appreciate. But I would venture to guess that 1000 years ago those people wouldn't have thought the same of those accomplishments. My point being that people 1000 years from now will value things differently than we do, so it's really impossible to say what "thing" you could do today that people would give a crap about in 1000 years.
- jacknews 8y agoMass murder, or having kids (or both!). Also saving lives. It changes who exists in 1000 years. But if you mean "what will people still be talking about in 1000 years:", of course it won't be all the bloodlines that didn't survive, or who their great^20 ancestor was. It'll be significant "historical events". Are you really smart? Cure cancer. Unify quantum mechanics and gravity. A great artist, composer, writer? Do your thing. Grossly rich? Start a foundation. Otherwise do something truly exceptional or outrageous.
- teilo 8y agoTo quote Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues: I was raised up believing I was somehow unique Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see And now after some thinking, I'd say I'd rather be A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me
- cableshaft 8y agoI design board games. It will be a challenge to design one that will last 1000 years, but there's at least one that I have designed that I think has a chance. It's called Proximity. I made and released a web version of it 14 years ago, and it's still my most played design (I desperately need to find the time to make a modern update, though. HTML5 at least). Doesn't exist in physical board game format yet, but I'm going to try to get a publisher for it in the next year or two (only been networking with the board game industry the past two years).
- timbit42 8y agoI like it. Thanks.
- AquiGorka 8y ago>I design board games. About that, I'd like to get in touch with you, I develop boardgames into their www version (well, in truth I've only done it for one Kuhhandel: https://github.com/AquiGorka/kuhhandel https://github.com/AquiGorka/kuhhandel) let me know if it is something that might interest you. Best, GOrka
- SuddsMcDuff 8y agoWe put so much focus on individual achievement. In the long run, it's collective achievement that matters. Why shouldn't we be content being a small cog in a much larger machine?
- elyrly 8y agobecause everyone wants to be a linchpin
- reitanqild 8y agoNot a direct answer but some of the things I'm most proud of that will probably affect lives of people not born yet: Convinced my boss to give the Polish woman who cleaned at the site I worked at a position as IT consultant (in Norway). She married a long time friend of mine a couple of years later (but I luckily had no influence on that except helping her getting her a job worth staying in Norway for.) Helped one man who did a great job to but lacked formal education to keep his job by leaving a well paid job at the same team very voluntarily (although not as big a sacrifice as it might sound. I found the job extremely boring.) Recently I also helped my neighbor to get a 50% pay rise. In between I've made software to simplify life for people organizing work in non profits. (Stupid web page connected to a sms api. Almost had to chase them away from it as better options emerged and I got more and more afraid of getting hacked and leaking a whole lot of data on the Internet.)
- rayalez 8y agoAnything that has to do with creating an AI. Pretty much whatever will nudge it in either direction(sooner/later, good/evil, whatever) will have impact, everything else probably won't matter. It's like imagine an ancient protofish asking "what can we do that will be significant in a million years?" Get out of the water and try walking.
- stillsut 8y agoBecome an archivist of the present. Something like Humans of New York where you use photographs and interviews of the heart, to portray the myriad ways life was experienced back when people were mortal, ate meat, and had children.
- MadVikingGod 8y agoSo most responses are things that you might to to be remembered in 1000 years, I'm going to take a different tack, things that will most likely not be undone in that time. One of the first things we have to throw out is the reliance on people. You can't statistically rely on 10-12 generations of people to do the same thing that you intended today. Also it is very unlikely that any contract you make today will exist and be enforceable in 1000 years. This eliminates setting up trusts, preserves, buying land and doing something with it, or any other long term project. And anyways something like this will take a number of people to be successful, why should you get all of the credit? Next lets talk about war. Unless the war wipes out a significant portion of the population, I'm talking WAY more then the 3% of the population WW2 killed, most of the damage done will either recover, or change to be mitigated. So what's left? You could do something that changes maps. The scope of this is VERY large, like build an island large. But there are cases where enough labor has been put in to permanently divert rivers, not just a damn. Or build "natural" structures that wind and rain haven't destroyed yet You could do something that changes humans place in the universe. Create a viable form of interstellar travel, find a way to represent a life without a body (computer sim?), or maybe change our planet (before we escape it) so it's not habitual for humans as we are now. For me personally I think it's enough to contribute to science and knowledge as a whole. I recognize that even if I have a profound discovery, given enough time it will be taught to 12th graders, see calculus. It's really the collection of discoveries that lead to profound discoveries that are the real MVPs.
- gremlinsinc 8y agoInvent immortality tech, live to be 1000 years old.
- calciphus 8y agoPretty sure at this point it's "commit global war crimes" or "cure aging". Anything short of that and your odds diminish significantly. Even if you create an art-defining advancement in some field and name it for yourself, anything about you will be lost.
- mabynogy 8y agoRaising kids but I'm not even sure about that.