[ExI] legacies

[spike]

Robert Bradbury's recent passing has me really pondering since that one hit
close to home: he was not much older than I am, yet he perished of an
age-related condition.  I started thinking about what he left us, his ideas.
Some of that is written in my green notebooks, notes I jotted down whenever
he visited.  Most of his legacy is probably in his files somewhere, some of
it is in the form of his posts to ExI-chat.  Tragically, he is perhaps best
remembered by some unguarded public comments he made shortly after the
9-11-01 attacks.  But that wasn't him, and that isn't his real legacy.  None
of us want to be forever remembered by something we did or said while we
were half crazy with grief at the funeral of our most cherished dreams.

 

It caused me to think about what I would leave behind should I suddenly have
a stroke or something.  Most of my interesting ideas I have loaded into the
internet over the years, much of that to Extropians, a little to Mensa, a
little to various math groups and other stuff like that.  But I now have a
lot of regrets in that if I perished suddenly, I will be known primarily by
the stuff I wrote in extropians.  Oh dear.  I have a few cool ideas in
there, but much of it is far more freeform than I would like, just silly
brain barfs and goofiness.  It was fun at the time, but it occurs to me that
if I don't write a book, then I would be forever known as the guy who wrote
those ExI-posts.  I have mixed feelings about that.

 

I could go the denial route, different spike66, never heard of him.  Or I
could focus on just outliving everyone I care about.  Otherwise I need to
write a book, just so that will be my legacy instead of this. 

 

Oy. 

 

spike

 

 

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