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Frankly? It's because you haven't achieved anything in your life of any real import and you probably never will. But guess what - neither have 99.9999999% of hu

Frankly? It's because you haven't achieved anything in your life of any real import and you probably never will. But guess what - neither have 99.9999999% of humans who have ever lived, or ever will live. 125 billion humans have walked the planet since the first Homo Sapiens first roamed Africa. How many of them are remembered today? How many of them had any real impact or achieved important things? Statistically, it is unlikely that you will be either remembered, or in fact have any real impact on the future of any great significance. Thinking otherwise will merely depress you. You are feeling like a loser because you are one - just like the rest of us. None of us will be known a generation from now and furthermore our entire existence will effectively be wiped away within 2 generations. So do whatever makes you happy for the longest period of time and embrace the pointlessness of your existence. I know I have.

neilk 14y ago
I think you're projecting your own problems here. OP did not complain about cosmic futility or worry about being remembered a generation hence, just a feeling they hadn't done much in life yet.
- confluence 14y ago
  These achievements are ostensibly done for the purposes of either impact, memory or gene dispersal.
  - neilk 14y ago
    Nope. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
    - confluence 14y ago
      List an achievement you don't think fits the above statement and is of the type you believe the OP wishes to accomplish.
      - neilk 14y ago
        I don't know what's wrong with OP's life or who he envies (I asked, which nobody else has done so far...) but I can answer for myself. You presuppose that there are certain things in life which are "mine" and that significance means that I enlarge those things, like a ripple in a pond. But you observe, correctly, that few of us make a great splash. Our ripples are lost in the chaos. Okay, first of all - we all can improve the welfare of others. Small ripples can be good enough. But the main fallacy in your argument is that there is a "me" whose impact needs to be enlarged. I believe this is fundamentally incorrect. What is the distinction between me and you right now? I have high-bandwidth communication going on between the neurons in my skull, but they're doing a low-bandwidth dance with yours right now too. This is why our achievements are lost in the chaotic echoes, because we are chaotic echoes. There never was a time when they were not just chaotic echoes. Things become arbitrary and meaningless when you succumb to the illusion that things are otherwise. With everything in my life that has had lasting value, there is a certain dissolving of the boundaries between myself and others. I don't mean altruism, I mean something more than that. I'm not sure I can explain it better than Chuang Tzu. http://home.earthlink.net/~bchaney/ty/joy-of-fishes.htm http://home.earthlink.net/~bchaney/ty/joy-of-fishes.htm
        init0 14y ago
        heh heh :)
init0 14y ago
But how did some of them manage to stay for generation after their dead?

neilk 14y ago

I think you're projecting your own problems here. OP did not complain about cosmic futility or worry about being remembered a generation hence, just a feeling they hadn't done much in life yet.

confluence 14y ago
These achievements are ostensibly done for the purposes of either impact, memory or gene dispersal.
- neilk 14y ago
  Nope. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
  - confluence 14y ago
    List an achievement you don't think fits the above statement and is of the type you believe the OP wishes to accomplish.
    - neilk 14y ago
      I don't know what's wrong with OP's life or who he envies (I asked, which nobody else has done so far...) but I can answer for myself. You presuppose that there are certain things in life which are "mine" and that significance means that I enlarge those things, like a ripple in a pond. But you observe, correctly, that few of us make a great splash. Our ripples are lost in the chaos. Okay, first of all - we all can improve the welfare of others. Small ripples can be good enough. But the main fallacy in your argument is that there is a "me" whose impact needs to be enlarged. I believe this is fundamentally incorrect. What is the distinction between me and you right now? I have high-bandwidth communication going on between the neurons in my skull, but they're doing a low-bandwidth dance with yours right now too. This is why our achievements are lost in the chaotic echoes, because we are chaotic echoes. There never was a time when they were not just chaotic echoes. Things become arbitrary and meaningless when you succumb to the illusion that things are otherwise. With everything in my life that has had lasting value, there is a certain dissolving of the boundaries between myself and others. I don't mean altruism, I mean something more than that. I'm not sure I can explain it better than Chuang Tzu. http://home.earthlink.net/~bchaney/ty/joy-of-fishes.htm http://home.earthlink.net/~bchaney/ty/joy-of-fishes.htm
      - init0 14y ago
        heh heh :)

init0 14y ago

But how did some of them manage to stay for generation after their dead?