Shadow Footprints

Inspired by a post from Solender at The Modern Mythology.

Our immortality is not in our genes, it is in the way we are remembered for shaping the world and the way people think. Who were your great-great grandfathers? Very few of us know of an ancestor who is even a footnote in history, their work and their genes unknown.

Some people reshape history by their actions and the way people respond to their actions: Shakespeare and his plays; Aristotle and his logic; Galileo and his astronomy; Joan of Arc and her insanity; Hitler and his war; Alan Turing and artificial intelligence; Da Vinci and the Mona Lisa; Tim Berners-Lee and the world wide web; Babbage and his analytical engine; Frank Lloyd Wright and his architecture; Hannibal and the Alps; Mallory and King Arthur.

Written histories make these memories easier, and in the information age these memories will last, and be accessed, for a long time, longer than an oral history. Stories about our great-great grandfathers are oral histories, losing a lot with each generation.

Our histories will last longer than that of our great-great grandfathers; someone just needs a link to find us. We will be footnotes in history, but the book is too big to read.

To be more than a footnote we need to change the way people think, and be proactive rather than reactive. Alas, I'm only a footnote.

Who Wants To Live Forever
Words and music by Brian May

There's no time for us
There's no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams yet slips away
From us

Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever....?

There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us

Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever?

Who dares to love forever?
When love must die

But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips
And we can have forever
And we can love forever
Forever is our today
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever?
Forever is our today

Who waits forever anyway?