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For an plethora of pertinent reasons made apparent to everyone on a daily basis, I've decided that this planet largely deserves to be the forsaken place it is. Unfortunately, the pressure of these realisations has worn in over time, causing me to erroneously conclude that everything in my life is very, very sad. Since I can't reproduce my selfish genes, the desire to make some form of lasting impact on this place is magnified, and even if I could, I would like everyone else, remain enormously subject to the same desire. Wishing to be remembered forever, but understanding you'll eventually be forgotten, is a bitter pill for all to swallow. Shelley said it best in Ozymandias, king of kings! "Look upon my works ye mighty, and despair!" The meaning that even the most powerful ancients have their astoundingly deep and broad achievements lost amidst the sands of time. Against the backdrop of our vastly scaled and aged universe, the sum total of all human endeavour amounts currently closer to nothing at all than anything substantial. An existential pointlessness Shelley or Satre could well have appreciated.
Fortunately even if you're not into etching your words deep in stone or sculpting your likeness into rocks, limits come in to help. We all need help describing the form our legacies will assume, because it is only by the goodwill of others they will take any lasting shape we might recognise. For a legacy to exist as long as possible while issuing the sort of impact you intended is difficult and requires an integrity of vision so fundamental to serving its purpose it is easily understood by everyone. So if you're going to attempt this, extreme care must be taken to ensure your legacy stands as being completely intentional, rather than the inverse (let's take most religious cult splinter groups, cults of personality, and fascist governments as examples of movements which were derailed from their intent to better our world). All petty despots, autocrats, and dictators really desired remembrance as great leaders--yet because their visions of their legacies lacked integrity or focus; by and large these people are remembered as evil monsters.
When you're setting about the game of empire-building things get out of control and devolve quickly, unless you keep beneficence clear in mind during the execution of ambitious plans. Empire-builders throughout history have ambitiously stacked rocks on top of one another in their efforts to reach ever greater heights of achievement. Inevitably bureaucrats throughout history have followed, taking those same rocks down again in almost equal measure. Without getting too far into the motivations for destroying the achievements of others (because these are both good and bad), it's far past time for the emergence of progressive new ideas concerning how and what we bequeath unto the future.
In trying to uncover a way to surpass these limitations, a deep desire has originated in me, something which because of my sadness, will never go away. I want this planet ripped apart. torn asunder, continental shelves flung from her heaving mantle. Not in an apocalyptic cataclysm, but a great and glorious upheaval of intelligence beginning the obvious next phase of human evolution. I finally have an answer to Larry Niven's question of "If aliens arrive offering us entry into the galactic amalgam of star-faring cultures, what are we going to say when a teenage mother throws her baby in a dumpster?" When grown men swing axes to slice off the arms of boys who refuse to bear arms for evil or no cause? We're going to unapologetically laugh then say; "By comparison to our ancestors, we're tame. They were capable of and did things so evil they defy description." Barbarism is barely a sufficient word to encompass the ancient cultural practices which produced our modern world.
Yet still, we identify greatly with our ancestors because they were perhaps even more human than we are capable of being. Now we are largely detached from both our past and present evils. Anyone living in modern society only has to watch films like "Baraka" to see how far we've drifted. From our original war-torn communities which suffered so much strife, disease and grief, the backlash sometimes causes their descendant societies to fall into a kind of eternally pacifist, subsistence existence of penance. This monkish trance produces so much happiness for individuals they can bliss out in ignorance--of the fact they are descendants of those vicious enough to destroy any competition so thoroughly, their ancestors were finally able to cease the perennial madness of killing thy neighbour to meditate on what they'd been doing. Afterwards, they disliked what they'd been up to as much as we dislike hearing about it historically, so those able to carry on raised their children to behave better than them. We are those children, and we all owe our present and departed ancestors the honour of raising children who behave far better than we do now.
In view of our past, for my vision for the future, I choose to meditate upon ways the world can change for the betterment of a future so far-flung few people can imagine how the human condition will be realised rather than suffered. I want this planet to become a world where nobody has to lose their sense of humour or childlike nature. Where our technologies constantly reshape our world into such a wonderful, amazing place, which everyone can enjoy in such variety, reality will truly be what we make of it.
Fortunately even if you're not into etching your words deep in stone or sculpting your likeness into rocks, limits come in to help. We all need help describing the form our legacies will assume, because it is only by the goodwill of others they will take any lasting shape we might recognise. For a legacy to exist as long as possible while issuing the sort of impact you intended is difficult and requires an integrity of vision so fundamental to serving its purpose it is easily understood by everyone. So if you're going to attempt this, extreme care must be taken to ensure your legacy stands as being completely intentional, rather than the inverse (let's take most religious cult splinter groups, cults of personality, and fascist governments as examples of movements which were derailed from their intent to better our world). All petty despots, autocrats, and dictators really desired remembrance as great leaders--yet because their visions of their legacies lacked integrity or focus; by and large these people are remembered as evil monsters.
When you're setting about the game of empire-building things get out of control and devolve quickly, unless you keep beneficence clear in mind during the execution of ambitious plans. Empire-builders throughout history have ambitiously stacked rocks on top of one another in their efforts to reach ever greater heights of achievement. Inevitably bureaucrats throughout history have followed, taking those same rocks down again in almost equal measure. Without getting too far into the motivations for destroying the achievements of others (because these are both good and bad), it's far past time for the emergence of progressive new ideas concerning how and what we bequeath unto the future.
In trying to uncover a way to surpass these limitations, a deep desire has originated in me, something which because of my sadness, will never go away. I want this planet ripped apart. torn asunder, continental shelves flung from her heaving mantle. Not in an apocalyptic cataclysm, but a great and glorious upheaval of intelligence beginning the obvious next phase of human evolution. I finally have an answer to Larry Niven's question of "If aliens arrive offering us entry into the galactic amalgam of star-faring cultures, what are we going to say when a teenage mother throws her baby in a dumpster?" When grown men swing axes to slice off the arms of boys who refuse to bear arms for evil or no cause? We're going to unapologetically laugh then say; "By comparison to our ancestors, we're tame. They were capable of and did things so evil they defy description." Barbarism is barely a sufficient word to encompass the ancient cultural practices which produced our modern world.
Yet still, we identify greatly with our ancestors because they were perhaps even more human than we are capable of being. Now we are largely detached from both our past and present evils. Anyone living in modern society only has to watch films like "Baraka" to see how far we've drifted. From our original war-torn communities which suffered so much strife, disease and grief, the backlash sometimes causes their descendant societies to fall into a kind of eternally pacifist, subsistence existence of penance. This monkish trance produces so much happiness for individuals they can bliss out in ignorance--of the fact they are descendants of those vicious enough to destroy any competition so thoroughly, their ancestors were finally able to cease the perennial madness of killing thy neighbour to meditate on what they'd been doing. Afterwards, they disliked what they'd been up to as much as we dislike hearing about it historically, so those able to carry on raised their children to behave better than them. We are those children, and we all owe our present and departed ancestors the honour of raising children who behave far better than we do now.
In view of our past, for my vision for the future, I choose to meditate upon ways the world can change for the betterment of a future so far-flung few people can imagine how the human condition will be realised rather than suffered. I want this planet to become a world where nobody has to lose their sense of humour or childlike nature. Where our technologies constantly reshape our world into such a wonderful, amazing place, which everyone can enjoy in such variety, reality will truly be what we make of it.
