Mankind's Legacy
Since I'm certian, by the direction the entire world seems to be moving, that mankind is beginning the downward sprial that ends in our extinction I have often wondered which of our creations is worth saving. When a new race of beings evolved from cockroaches uncovers our cities while toiling in their underground sugar mines what would would I like them to find and remember us by? What is mankind's single greatest achievment or creation? Mastery of the atom? Space travel? Antibiotics? Clones?
Most of mankinds most significant steps can be traced back to individual people. Oppenheimer, Einstien, Darwin, Gautama, Jesus... those are just a few... and just the men. Women have contributed themselves... and in ways you've never heard of. Actress Hedy Lamarr's patent of a method of unblockable/untappable radio communication in the 1940s serves as a good, albeit meager, example.
I have my short list but I don't want to set the tone. I'd like to know what other people think. What accomplishment would you like aliens, Victorian time travellers with a steam powered flux capacitor, or the occupants of the horrible Planet Of The Apes* to find in the future and remember our extinct society for?
* It was Earth
Most of mankinds most significant steps can be traced back to individual people. Oppenheimer, Einstien, Darwin, Gautama, Jesus... those are just a few... and just the men. Women have contributed themselves... and in ways you've never heard of. Actress Hedy Lamarr's patent of a method of unblockable/untappable radio communication in the 1940s serves as a good, albeit meager, example.
I have my short list but I don't want to set the tone. I'd like to know what other people think. What accomplishment would you like aliens, Victorian time travellers with a steam powered flux capacitor, or the occupants of the horrible Planet Of The Apes* to find in the future and remember our extinct society for?
* It was Earth
posted by Unknown at 1:16 PM
6 Comments:
unfortunately i don't know that anything will be left of the world by the time we are done with it.
it's easier for me to think of things i hope they don't find. like anything religious. hopefully all the bibles, korans, scrolls, what the fuck evers, scientology bullshit pages, will all be destroyed so the newcomers will never have to deal with such stupid shit.
when we have so many other things to fight over...
i mean, really, if everything starts anew from cockroaches then everything will progress as it should and they will eventually come up will all the shit we did. won't they? cuz all you can do is move forward, progress. right? am i too simplistic? prolly. oh well. i haven't done shit for them to find. except reign as the peacekeeper. in my little world.
at the risk of sounding like a sexist prick i would like to relate this moment (in humor, of course, and to show my wife that I'm not just picking on her)to my post last week by pointing out that frankles is female and it just took her 3 paragraphs to not answer. ;)
frankles.. you should go into politics
on the other hand, i partially agree with you frnkls. there are a lot of things I would hope they don't uncover and many of the things i wish they would find are unlikely to exist in any way that would last that amount of time.
still... hypothetical questions aren't made to focus on practical details and if there was one thing I wanted aliens or rocach people to remember mankind for forever and ever it would be Beethoven's 9th symphony. It is the greatest piece of music ever written and demonstrates all of what is good about man without tell the aliens we were all a bunch of xenophobic genocidal dickweeds
as long as the 50 foot statue in honor of my penis remains intact, I'll be happy.
if they were able to erect it you should be happy...
[rimshot]
lol! i'm not upset one bit. i know i wasn't answering the question. i have nothing to contribute. i can't think of one thing i would want them to find. not one. yes, beethoven's 9th is amazing and probably could never be duplicated ever. so it would be nice for them to find it. but would they appreciate it as we do or would they discard it?
this is why i don't care. cuz they prolly won't think jack of it and that would make me mad.
politics. nah. i like dealing with real crazies. like, certified.
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