[ExI] Rejecting Socrates

[Dan]

I agree with the parenthetic comment, though I'd point that recognition can often fuel people to do more work -- and some people do actually enjoy if not do things spefically to be recognized. I find nothing wrong with this as such.
 
And maybe a tiny amount of public relations would help here with giving credit where it's due and making sure it doesn't go where it's not.
 
Of course, if the conventional view of Socrates is close to the truth about him, he was unlikely to have other steal credit from him for being a pest or a gadfly. Surely, there are people who value that and today Socrates is well remembered for it. (And, to respond to the earlier post by Anders,  while our knowledge of Socrates does come through the flters of Plato, Aristotle (or whoever took notes during his lectures), Xenophanes, and Aristophanes, it's likely they weren't too far off base.)
 
Regards,
 
Dan
From: David Lubkin <lubkin at unreasonable.com>
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 1:03 PM
Subject: Re: [ExI] Rejecting Socrates/was Re: Libertarianism wins again...

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.

_______________________________________________
extropy-chat mailing list
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20110726/9ccbb659/attachment.html>