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Something that helped when I was younger: the realization that almost nobody will be remembered long after their death. How many people can you name from 1,000
by tjs8rj 5y ago
Something that helped when I was younger: the realization that almost nobody will be remembered long after their death. How many people can you name from 1,000 years ago? How many people can you name from last century? How many billionaires who passed away in the 90s could you name? Or in the 2000s? How many scientists could you list who passed away in the last decade?
Mark Zuckerberg won’t be mentioned much a few years after his death despite being one of the richest humans and accomplishing it in his early 20s. Sure we remember Steve Jobs, but almost nobody bothers to think about him other than for a moment here and there. We’re almost all connected by that lack of permanence, from kings to commoners. Even the people we remember have very little impact in the mindspace of people’s day to day life.
- miltondts 5y agoMaybe because those are examples of people that didn't have any significant work that can be admired? We remember the works of Euclid, Plato, Socrates, Newton, Shakespeare, the Wright Brothers, Einstein etc. I imagine none of these people spared much thought as to whether they were mediocre or would be remembered. They just did what they felt compelled to do.
- klyrs 5y agoSlight nitpick, we don't have recorded works of Socrates. We have notes that his students took. He was rather famously against writing.
- tjs8rj 5y agoYou can name 10 people of the 100 billion who have lived? Even 20,000 notable people from today and history would be 0.00002% of the humans who have lived, or 1 in 50,000. Most of them are unknown to the vast majority of humans - hardly famous in any colloquial sense.
- mmmBacon 5y agoEven more sobering is to consider how many people who have ever lived. The number is estimated to be ~100B people. I was so blown away by this number when I learned it that it affected me for several days after. I often consider it when reflecting on my own achievements and failures.
- jolmg 5y agoI'm not sure what to think of that number. Did you feel it was too small or too big at the time?
- mmmBacon 5y agoThe context was a person who insisted the number of people alive today was more than all who had ever lived. The statement felt wrong but I also initially didn’t believe 100B. After some research, I now believe the 100B number is about right.
- steve_g 5y agoReminds me of Ozymandias. The text of the poem is in the article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 7373737373 5y agoMemories are often just snippets, ideas, caricatures, abstract associations, selected, subjectively observed, retold and rated parts of the whole. I would say a human life cannot be remembered, just experienced.
- France_is_bacon 5y agoRight. One other thing that people say is that they will have kids and leave part of themselves. Ha. Ha, I say. Your children have half, or .5, of your genetic code. Grandchildren have 1/4 or .25. Great-grandchildren have .125 of your DNA. You see where this is going. In 15 generations, or 450 years from now in 2471 AD(or, 450 years ago is 1571 AD), your DNA in your 15-great-grandchild will be 0.0030517578125%. Your 30th progeny in 900 years from now in 2921 AD (or in 1121 AD), your DNA in your 30-great-grandchildren will be 0.00000009313225746155%. Of course, this is assuming that all of your line does not go extinct, which is a distinct possibility. You're not Genghis Khan, after all.