[ExI] Rejecting Socrates/was Re: Libertarianism wins again...

[David Lubkin]

Anders wrote:

>My own recipe for cultural immortality: find a new important 
>problem, make a stab at solving it. Even if you fail you will be a 
>seminal character.

I know several people who have solved important problems, including
myself, who are completely unknown for having done so. The solution
is used pervasively but the creator is forgotten.

Examples: My friend Nat Mishkin invented what Microsoft calls a UUID
about 25 years ago, which pervades computing. The histories usually
erroneously credit Microsoft or OSF. My grandfather came up with
the idea of clocked logic, for the SEAC in 1950. Every computer in
the world uses it now, and he's forgotten altogether.

This annoys me sometimes, but I'd rather change the world than get
credit for it.

(To clarify: I can live with no one being credited; I get ticked off when
a solution is attributed to someone who had nothing to do with it.
Or worse, fought it.)


-- David.