Who will remember you in 100 years? • Hacker News Board

Re: Who will remember you in 100 years?

#31

Post by atemerev » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 12:10 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #14

atemerev wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geocities were there 20 years ago. I posted some cringeworthy things there. Now they aren't there anymore (thank goodness). Your posts, too, shall pass.

Storage gets cheaper and cheaper.

Losing backups is always an option.

Re: Who will remember you in 100 years?

#32

Post by mirimir » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 12:12 PM UTC

eklavya wrote: post #12

It's also important to remember "will you care?".

Arguably, we'll never know that we're dead. That's a kind of immortality, I suppose.

Re: Who will remember you in 100 years?

#33

Post by fdej » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 12:12 PM UTC

From the epilogue of Barry Lyndon: "It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarreled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now."

Re: Who will remember you in 100 years?

#34

Post by tim333 » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 12:13 PM UTC

jpatokal wrote: post #26

Uptrenda wrote: post #18

That's one thing that has always bothered me about grave yards: how little the people end up leaving behind. An entire life gets reduced to a few meaningless facts about a person that don't really tell us anything about who they were. It would kind of be nice in that sense if there was more information available about a person to perhaps leave something behind. Maybe some wisdom or entertaining historical facts from…

The problem is not that information can't be persisted: diaries etc have been around for a long time. The problem is that there is nobody left who will care about a person they've never even met.

I recently tried looking up some relatives about 5 generations back. If you average 2 kids each then in 5 generations you have 40 or so living descendants who may be curious. It was interesting because one of them wrote a family history in fairly literary form - bit Jane Austen in style. Not sure we would have bothered if it was just diaries.

Re: Who will remember you in 100 years?

#35

Post by gavinpc » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 12:15 PM UTC

Uptrenda wrote: post #18

That's one thing that has always bothered me about grave yards: how little the people end up leaving behind. An entire life gets reduced to a few meaningless facts about a person that don't really tell us anything about who they were. It would kind of be nice in that sense if there was more information available about a person to perhaps leave something behind. Maybe some wisdom or entertaining historical facts from…

Regarding the archival quality of bits, you might find this paper interesting:

http://www.vpri.org/pdf/tr2015004_cuneiform.pdf

Re: Who will remember you in 100 years?

#36

Post by mirimir » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 12:17 PM UTC

In many countries, cemeteries aren't managed so well as this one in Sweden. I've toured my share, and recall seeing graves that were hundreds of years old. In some places, thousands.

Not that it matters, of course.

Re: Who will remember you in 100 years?

#37

Post by bertlequant » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 12:20 PM UTC

The pale blue dot will

Re: Who will remember you in 100 years?

#38

Post by tim333 » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 12:22 PM UTC

dbg31415 wrote: post #15

elorant wrote: post #13

Well there's a very good chance we'll be alive in 100 years.

This is the most depressing comment in the thread. It's not about how long we live, it's about how long we live while we are in our prime... Gen 1 tech issues... we are extending lives, we aren't really extending prime years... so all we're doing is stretching out that twilight-period. Every time I visit my 97 year-old grandparents they say things like, "I pray I'll go soon..." I'd rather just go quick at 50 than pro…

It depressing if you assume we'll be withered and half alive but they may fix that.

Re: Who will remember you in 100 years?

#39

Post by atemerev » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 12:25 PM UTC

qzxvwt wrote: post #29

WalterBright wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Storage gets cheaper and cheaper.

don't data centers and the rest of our electrical infrastructure still need natural gas and other limited resources to function?

Nuclear power will last for ~million years (with closed nuclear cycle and fast breeders — all available and running today)

Re: Who will remember you in 100 years?

#40

Post by makira » Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 12:29 PM UTC

kator wrote: post #19

Many times, in my career while negotiating something with another party I've said, "Let's get this fixed, it won't mean much to either of us in 50 years and in 100 nobody will remember either of us." I've managed to solve some pretty hairy problems saying that, the other party usually pauses and realizes the futility of our disagreement and we work something out. Call me morbid but I started saying that when I was 18…

You probably know about "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" by William B Irvine. If not, I think you would enjoy it.