John Grigg wrote:
>It offends me to think that the people alive today are somehow more valuable
>and important then people from the past.
Oh, but they are. While people who are dead may have had an extremely
valuable life, the truth is that no new ideas, thoughts, feelings or
notions can be evoked from them. The only thing that keeps such people
important is the magnitude of value they once possessed conveyed by those
who are currently alive. Take Heinlein, for instance: famous writer and
visionary, but his importance is only cemented by the fact that people
still read his writings and convey his values. This is the sense of
"immortality" that most driven people have classically wished to possess.
However, if someone such as Heinlein were alive today the continual
creation of ideas would make him perpetually or kinetically important,
rather than important only in the eyes of his conveyors.
It is for this reason, and many others, that I'm shooting for the real
immortality --why would I want to be an important part of the past when I
could be an eternally kinetic part of the future?
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E. Shaun Russell Extropian, Musician, ExI Member
e_shaun@uniserve.com <KINETICIZE *YOUR* POTENTIAL>
Hear my music at: http://www.mp3.com/eshaunrussell
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"The creation of the future is in the creation of the present"
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