Be crazy. Do crazy things like Elon Musk does. Everything remembered was not ordinary.
Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
31–40 of 83 posts
Re: Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
#32You 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.
Re: Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
#33Plant 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.
Re: Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
#341000 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...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknote#Early_Chinese_paper_m...
Re: Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
#35Most 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).
Re: Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
#36Have 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.
Re: Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
#37This seems like as good a time as any to trot out Beatles 3000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z2vU8M6CYI
Re: Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
#38Make or commission an observational sculpture from nature, a bust being the most common example, carved in stone or cast in metal.
Re: Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
#39I'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.
You 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.
Re: Ask HN: What can you do today that will be significant in 1000 years?
#40Buy 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.