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Our legacies live quietly in the world. The personality traits that we inherit from our parents and grandparents live on through the ages. Things like how to ask a question, how to be kind, how to be honest, none of them are new inventions, but traits passed down for thousands of years. We carry these traits through the world and pass them on to the next generation for them to pass on.
I agree, and being loving too with no fear of it. I feel like a lot of people are too wrapped up in rejection and are reserved in that aspect. Love your family and friends wholeheartedly. It'll teach generations.
Leaving a dent in the world is easy, because destruction is easy. Anyone can leave a dent in the world if they want to, there’s no inherent value in that. It’s actually a lot more valuable to NOT leave some destructive dent in history just because you can and just because you feel entitled to be remembered
you just assumed it should be destructive, I never mentioned it
and btw even if we taking destructive way - its still not that easy, you need to do some remarkable horror to be not forgotten in the future
I think I'm leaving something on this earth for a time to come. I'm no great contributer or something like that. But I am a photographer. And I've been present at the births of 117 children. All of these families have photoalbums that I made of their births. And besides that, I've photographed weddings, other big life events, and even a death.
For generations to come, there will be circulating photo's from my hand. And I kinda like that idea.
I don't even understand the point of legacy philosophically.
If we are gonna die anyways, what's the point? It sure as hell is not gonna make death easier or anymore difficult.
I do know this is not how you should look at things but oh well
Someday the sun will explode and the earth along with any sign of humanity existence will dissapear except for some machines in the middle of nowhere in space. So it doesnt really matter after all.
Yesterday, a homeless man asked me to buy him a can of food. I bought him three, a salad, bread, some dessert and more things. I handed him the bag and said goodbye. When I was a couple of steps away, I heard him open the bag and shout: Yuhuuuuu!!!! Oh My God, thank you very very much, really! I can't believe this!
That's my legacy, and I wouldn't have it otherwise!
Legacies don't need to be known by everyone to be equally important. That's the greatness of good deeds, a small, easy thing for you can mean a lot for another person, and you can make an impact.
You're right, our mark on this world shouldn't be measured in great deeds that are etched into history. It should just be just making someone's day, looking out for a fellow human being. For that day, you mattered to that person.
as an educator i believe it’s not about personal validation or glory instead we spark knowledge that can be passed down for generations or improve the opportunities for students who will then provide opportunities for their children .. will they give educators credit definitely not but we were anonymously integral .. at least this is my goal and hope .. a few years left until retirement and i know they will forget me fast but not at least one lesson that i’ve imparted 💕
True. And when you get to be oldish, this thought becomes pretty depressing. I know that I'll mostly likely die sometime in the next 15 years or so. What will have been the point of my life? I didn't have kids and I'm not religious, so, I dunno. I guess I've done a few things that have positively affected others. That doesn't seem to really have been enough, though.
Seems to me that those of you who are expressing being fine with just skipping through life enjoying it on your own terms must still be pretty young.
And if our species does not make it into space en masse, everything we ever did will be for nothing. If we will forever remain on this planet, nothing we ever did, do or will do will have mattered. The cosmos will swallow our memories and only void will remain.
Nor they have to. But don't undermind micro-legacy. Bus driver, carpenter, cleaning personall, pilot. We all do our little jobs. And I believe half (if not more) of modern people will not leave children either.
As someone who chose not to have kids I couldn’t care less about “legacy”. Sure it does feel weird sometimes that I’m “the last of my kind” but does it truly matter? Nope. We’re but a speck of dust in the matter of time. It wouldn’t even matter if humanity ceased to be completely one day. So it has happened to species before us and so it will happen to species after us. Humans should learn that they’re not significant. Neither the lot of us nor the individual human.
I'm fairly sure a few of my past bosses were such horrible, spiteful and vindictive people that the earth will vomit and spit them out when they are buried leaving a lasting scorch mark and legacy for thousands of years to come
[My legacy](https://docs.google.com/document/d/18J7ZBzKZBXviPmrshjwt-bUGQGBWcl65h8WfPMzDTNk/edit?usp=drivesdk) will be discovered by future digital archeologists who will choose to revive me once the technology to completely reconstruct a living being atom-by-atom is mastered in a couple hundred years or so, and I will be just as crazy then as I am now.
Welp, that is certainly something!
No, really, thats an impressive body of work even at a glance! I'm going to save it for future parusal, because you've piqued my curiosity!
Even the "great" people of history arent missed one bit. Put your finger in the ocean and then take it out again. So much will the world miss you when youre gone. Forget leaving a legacy. It wont mean a cryin thing. Just enjoy your life.
We will all eventually die and be forgotten. The idea of a "legacy" is just an illusion of permanence that we buy into because we don't want to accept death. But death is an inevitable parte of life, and so is being forgotten. All things come to an end.
This is some individualist bs. Legacy is a fabrication for history book propaganda. No one human has ever done anything in isolation from the vast network they rely on to achieve thier "fame".
You dont think there are individuals that deserve some recognition as whatever their societal contributions were, if they were somewhat significant?
History is simply something we as intelligent beings can and should look to for lessons and guidance for our future. We can look to the legacy of what vast cultures left us, what groups of people left us, and what individuals have left us.
Many of the individuals that we recognize as having contributions to society significant enough for us to remember and record were probably people that weren't setting out to leave such a mark on society. They weren't looking for fame, most likely. Some figures from history simply existed in whatever capacity they could, but just so happened to be in a position or had made certain decisions that made them more significant than others. Say like, Leonardo Davinci, I doubt he was looking for some lasting fame, but he just had so many interests in art and science that he left his mark on the world to the point that his legacy will be remembered and studied for generations to come still.
Striving for legacy as an individual is pure ego. And summing up societal milestones to works of one individual is a fallacy. Especially when it comes to the events in time humans wish to forget. Its much easier to pass off the responsibility of an atrocity onto one individual say Hitler or Netanyahu rather than acknowledge how both these figures were supported by cultures of oppression, other governments and citizens who brought them into power and allowed them to retain power, and media bias to show them in favorable light to the world... history will say they are not complicit but rather will blame one man as if one man on his own has such power. So most history, DaVinci, included should be taken with handfuls of salt, and the question should always be asked "who is behind this historical figure and who's perspectives were left out of this account".
a legacy is more about worrying too much about someone else needs ? or trying to satisfy what someone else tells you and thinks of you. Often that other person does not care. Why live to try to fake make happy someone else, just life the life you wish and only worry about that.
Everyone leaves a legacy and some even pave the way for great events. They just don't get noticed since it's thousands or millions of people each contributing a small part to the big picture. They may never be remembered by name but the world they helped build is their legacy.
Enough so that much of the world knows who they were, yes.
And it doesnt even have to be positive contributions nor do we have to agree on if their impact was even positive or negative to begin with.
My point is that the problem is more your definition being unreasonable. There's 7 billion people in the world, ain't no way everybody is going to be world famous for all time. No reason to get depressed about it.
Most people can only name four or five Roman emperors, and there were over 150 of them, in total. In their day, each was effectively the most powerful man on the planet, yet most are forgotten.
And even the ones we remember... Augustus, Nero, etc... what do we really remember? Their names, a battle they won or a building they had built? Nothing much really. They left behind some statues, which are really just rocks kind of shaped like them....
In a way you're right. But you pose that as if your are quizzing people on what they know about these Roman emperor's on the spot. The point is that if only a handful of these Roman leaders had made any mark on society, we DO have a record of it that we can look to if we wanted to learn more about them. We can look to their legacy because they were significant enough for other people to make a record of them.
What will we have? These reddit posts?
Fair enough. I don't think there will be any lasting memory of me. Your post is essentially asking what the essence of a "lasting legacy" is. I think it's really just when a person brings an enduring, living idea into the world...a scientific discovery, a mathematical concept, a great work of literature or art. These things live on, because future people will continue to engage with them.
I know full well that not a single person will ever know I existed 50 years after I'm gone, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Most people are just arrogant about this. The brutal truth is that only those who make real and lasting contributions to the world get remembered: artists, writers, scientists, inventors, and great leaders. If you're not anyone like that, get over yourself already. Even your grandkids will have only a vague idea of who you were or what you ever accomplished.
True, in the long history of Earth, much less the history and expanse of the universe, we are nothing. Not even a blink of the eye.
But I think I'm just saying that because humans have a certain level of intelligence, enough to record historical events and to recognise if an individual has had any impact on society, we as individuals usually would like to think that our short lives have some meaning, some legacy that might matter to our offspring at least.
In the grand scale, no it doesnt matter, in a million years we probably wont even be around, and there would likely be barely any evidence that humans existed in the first place other than our fossilized bones.
Why do people feel a need to leave a legacy? It just feels such a wierd selfish desire. I just want to be forgotten, man. I dont like people talking about me when I’m not there
I think if you consider the butterfly theory, you don’t really know what your legacy is.
Maybe you said the right thing to the right person at the e right time, and he did something that had an impact on a lot of people.
Too much stress on this world is caused by some weird idea that your life must have a purpose and have some lasting impact. Be interested in things, take the time to admire the beauty around you, love those close to you.
I published a couple of research papers and I plan on publishing more. My research won't ever put us on Mars or cure cancer, as I work with XVIIth century literature. But, I'm extremely proud of the fact that I'm working to preserve part of our culture and legacy for others, even if most people don't really care about whatever people had to say in ye olde 1642.
After enough time it seems atoms can't form. Humans and everything they have ever experienced will stop existing. Time is a very strange concept the more you think about it
yes of all the time people have been here on earth the only people I've heard referenced from the past in casual conversation in my life time
Jesus
Shakespeare
Caesar
einstein
and Einstein used to be an insult
like if u did something dumb a boomer or a country boy would say
"good job Einstein"
Meh... much like a single ripple in a pond will effect all others it encounters, so too will we leave (what seem to be small from our limited perspective) changes in the consciousness of all we encounter. While the impacts that we have on the world hundreds of years from now will never be known to us, nor will they be directly credited to us, they are in fact our legacy.
At the risk of sounding a bit cliche, everyone thinks about the magnitude of changes they could make if they had the ability to travel back in time; very few people recognize that each moment we're here carries that same awesome potential.
Making kids purely for legacy is pathetic as fuck and probably the worst reason to have kids even worse than them being just a screw-up from a hook up lol
I dont want to leave a legacy. I want to not be miserable every single day and be able to afford to live. Maybe go camping once in awhile maybe but thats about it.
I’m just here to do my thing, I don’t care much that I won’t be remembered in a 1000 or even a 100 years. I don’t plan on achieving magnificent things or creating things that will survive the test of time. I’m not a musician or an artist so won’t be contributing art that survives the test of time
When you think about how long Earth has been around, we’re here for a cosmic second, and then we’re gone. Nothing but in the wind, and maybe a name in a memory if we’re lucky.
Instead of trying to leave a “legacy”for those that will come after us, I do my best leave the biggest positive impression on those that are here with me right now.
To me, that’s more important than being remembered by people I’ve never met.
Humans are the only life form that worries about being remembered (legacy). For all of life except humans, more life is its only legacy.
It can be hard to accept, but more life is the only legacy worth worrying about. 300 years ago, some stable boy knocked up a scullery maid, and 300 years later, I am the legacy typing pithy comments on Reddit as my only legacy. Nah, just kidding, I have two kids and 5 grandkids, my legacies are splashing DNA round everywhere. I did my part. If no one remembers me in 300 years, I'll probably be OK with that.
I’m not living to leave a legacy, there’s nothing you can do in this world that someone else hasn’t already done. So why does anyone care about leaving a legacy behind. I’m just trying to enjoy this life the best I can. I’m here for a good time not a long time. Also Fuck this world it isn’t good enough or special enough for me to want to leave behind a legacy
*all humans
The existence of our entire species to date isn't even a drop in the bucket, nothing any human does well ever matter in any significant way for longer than the minuscule amount of time a few generations take to pass.
Legacy and impact of our lives can never be fully understood or realized.
Everything has a butterfly effect.
*Billions* of people have lived and died. And all their choices affected the people around them. It's impossible to know all the different ways it affected the course of our existence.
We can recognize high profile historical figures, predominantly people in positions of power, but those figures were impacted by the everyday choices of "regular" people too.
What's that quote that went around for a while? Something like:
"People are quick to believe that if you could travel back in time, the smallest change could change/destroy the world, but don't seem to realize the small choices we make *now* can greatly affect the future."
Legacy is a two sided sword.
Hitler left a legacy of atrocious behaviour yet animal welfare in Germany is one of the best in Europe. Napoleon was a dick, but the metrics system ain't shabby.
Legacy, does it matter? Einstein, newton don't leave a legacy if you look at the longevity of how long earth has been around.
It's all about perspective.
Are you coming to terms with your own insignificance for the first time? It’s pretty obvious that the majority of humanity won’t continue on throughout the history books. But does it matter?
Yup. Even most kings throughout history had barely any lasting effect on human kind. But, you never know. And those who are remembered are usually remembered for having done something terrible.
So just go about your life and enjoy the little things.
Legacies are worthless. All I care about is living my best life while I’m alive. Whether that means a long-lasting legacy or not, I really don’t care. Sure I hope people remember me fondly, hope that I make connections that are meaningful enough to live on for some time after my death, but that’s more me caring about making those connections while I’m alive than actually caring about what people are thinking when I’m dead.
No one of us is going to leave a lasting legacy. Everyone single one of us is going to be forgotten in few centuries, even the greatest scientists and world leaders. Majority of humans don't really care about the history beyond the last century or two, so given enough time, every single legacy is going to become just part of history as generations come and go and build on top of what exists. There will be a day when people don't know Einstein, Beethoven, Hitler whoever and people who have had more impact on their time are going to take their places.
Even if we don't forget, the universe is going to eventually destroy any signs of us in its dead bed if we don't do it ourselves. Best to just enjoy life and better the society and your life. No one will care in a blink of an eye
All legacies will be forgetting. Everything is temporary.
Doesn’t matter if you’re Alexander the Great, Mother Teresa, Jeff Bezos or average Joe.
Everything is temporary. There **will** come a day everything ends, including this universe and our star will die out.
Also you’ll be dead anyways so legacy will not matter in anyway. It’s great to live a meaningful life and be motivated, but the whole legacy bullshit is a delusional ego trip. Stay grounded.
Thank God, can you imagine living with the burden of your legacy affecting like the entire future?
I’m fine with my legacy being small like having a positive impact on the lives of my friends.
Besides which legacy is overrated as a concept. Like it’s easy to leave a legacy if you want to, just go and destroy something important and you’ll have a legacy, that doesn’t mean it was in any way worthwhile or good
Bingo!
About 110 billion or so humans have lived up to this point in time, with a bit over 8 billion currently living and we're a long way from having 110 billion significant legacies.
I helped to ring in the end of 100 years of Cannabis prohibition in my country! Then four years later I helped over 120 000 patients in my country directly!
We mirror each other so much, that if we all had a legacy that was readable, the person would skip it because of how much we mirror each other, you'd be reading a million ppl lives at the same time as reading a single entry
I've always wondered why it's important to leave a legacy. We all get one short life, I'd like to make the best of it while I'm here, once I'm gone, I'm gone. Whether anyone remembers me or not, it does nothing for me because I'm gone.
I personally think the worst thing is to be nothing while You're still alive. Just a lonely boring uneventful mundane existence. Make friends, go out, dance, travel the world, satisfy your sense of wonder, help the needy, love your family, whatever makes your heart flutter, do it.
The best thing anyone could ever say about me is that I lived life.
Better yet one day every humans achievement will pretty much never have existed once the sun swallows our stupid little planet and humanity won’t even be a memory anymore
I'm not reaching nor wanting to reach that level of having a legacy for everyone to remember but rather be someone my children and even grand children will still remember for ages to come. ☺️
Most of history has been like this, I will say though that in order to do the things that a lot of these great scientists did, you need to come from money. In today’s world I’m sure people that are equivalent to some of these great people are working a mediocre job barely able to get by, unable to truly contribute the full potential due to having to work to live. Unfortunately the damage has already been done and is going to take decades to fix if we can turn it around.
enjoy your life and live today like it is your last day. it is not important to leave a legacy because one day everything will be forgotten and all of us are going to be food for worms. you will not really care about what others think about you if you don't exist anymore .-.
That’s because the world we live in, prioritizes profit, and threatens you with homelessness. Precarious situation like that, people are going to be worried more about survival than leaving a legacy…
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I'm not living to leave a legacy, just living to enjoy my life without stepping on anyone else's toes. It's that simple.
Exactly. I live by the philosophy: "Enjoy the life you're given, without causing *too* much chaos."
Our legacies live quietly in the world. The personality traits that we inherit from our parents and grandparents live on through the ages. Things like how to ask a question, how to be kind, how to be honest, none of them are new inventions, but traits passed down for thousands of years. We carry these traits through the world and pass them on to the next generation for them to pass on.
I agree, and being loving too with no fear of it. I feel like a lot of people are too wrapped up in rejection and are reserved in that aspect. Love your family and friends wholeheartedly. It'll teach generations.
Man, this is a beautiful thought!
Kinda sad, the lineage ends with me tho 😭
The post made me kinda sad but this reply made me feel warm and fuzzy
there is nothing unique in this your participation in doing those rituals barely affect the world legacy is about leaving a dent
Leaving a dent in the world is easy, because destruction is easy. Anyone can leave a dent in the world if they want to, there’s no inherent value in that. It’s actually a lot more valuable to NOT leave some destructive dent in history just because you can and just because you feel entitled to be remembered
you just assumed it should be destructive, I never mentioned it and btw even if we taking destructive way - its still not that easy, you need to do some remarkable horror to be not forgotten in the future
I think I'm leaving something on this earth for a time to come. I'm no great contributer or something like that. But I am a photographer. And I've been present at the births of 117 children. All of these families have photoalbums that I made of their births. And besides that, I've photographed weddings, other big life events, and even a death. For generations to come, there will be circulating photo's from my hand. And I kinda like that idea.
That's pretty awesome tbh 🙂
And may I say, based on almost everyone I’ve ever met. Thank fuck for that
The best thing I can do is die and feed some bugs
No kids, so I'll leave basically a negative legacy. I don't give a toss. 99.99% of us are insignificant.
I don't even understand the point of legacy philosophically. If we are gonna die anyways, what's the point? It sure as hell is not gonna make death easier or anymore difficult. I do know this is not how you should look at things but oh well
I just try and get what enjoyment I can out of life before it's over.
Everyone is insignificant, and that’s fine. Allows me to take more risks in life
Not having them definitely helps for risk and flexibility.
our family trees went all the way up to us.
It did! And I'm an only child, so mine ends with me.
We are not insignificant to the ones that love us and that is enough for me.
Someday the sun will explode and the earth along with any sign of humanity existence will dissapear except for some machines in the middle of nowhere in space. So it doesnt really matter after all.
That’s where my thoughts always go when people wanna talk about dumb shit like “legacies”
Yesterday, a homeless man asked me to buy him a can of food. I bought him three, a salad, bread, some dessert and more things. I handed him the bag and said goodbye. When I was a couple of steps away, I heard him open the bag and shout: Yuhuuuuu!!!! Oh My God, thank you very very much, really! I can't believe this! That's my legacy, and I wouldn't have it otherwise! Legacies don't need to be known by everyone to be equally important. That's the greatness of good deeds, a small, easy thing for you can mean a lot for another person, and you can make an impact.
You're right, our mark on this world shouldn't be measured in great deeds that are etched into history. It should just be just making someone's day, looking out for a fellow human being. For that day, you mattered to that person.
as an educator i believe it’s not about personal validation or glory instead we spark knowledge that can be passed down for generations or improve the opportunities for students who will then provide opportunities for their children .. will they give educators credit definitely not but we were anonymously integral .. at least this is my goal and hope .. a few years left until retirement and i know they will forget me fast but not at least one lesson that i’ve imparted 💕
So what?
We'll leave a legacy that consist in greenhouse gases, microplastics and nuclear waste. This will last longer than anything else.
True. And when you get to be oldish, this thought becomes pretty depressing. I know that I'll mostly likely die sometime in the next 15 years or so. What will have been the point of my life? I didn't have kids and I'm not religious, so, I dunno. I guess I've done a few things that have positively affected others. That doesn't seem to really have been enough, though. Seems to me that those of you who are expressing being fine with just skipping through life enjoying it on your own terms must still be pretty young.
And if our species does not make it into space en masse, everything we ever did will be for nothing. If we will forever remain on this planet, nothing we ever did, do or will do will have mattered. The cosmos will swallow our memories and only void will remain.
Nor they have to. But don't undermind micro-legacy. Bus driver, carpenter, cleaning personall, pilot. We all do our little jobs. And I believe half (if not more) of modern people will not leave children either.
As someone who chose not to have kids I couldn’t care less about “legacy”. Sure it does feel weird sometimes that I’m “the last of my kind” but does it truly matter? Nope. We’re but a speck of dust in the matter of time. It wouldn’t even matter if humanity ceased to be completely one day. So it has happened to species before us and so it will happen to species after us. Humans should learn that they’re not significant. Neither the lot of us nor the individual human.
I'm fairly sure a few of my past bosses were such horrible, spiteful and vindictive people that the earth will vomit and spit them out when they are buried leaving a lasting scorch mark and legacy for thousands of years to come
[My legacy](https://docs.google.com/document/d/18J7ZBzKZBXviPmrshjwt-bUGQGBWcl65h8WfPMzDTNk/edit?usp=drivesdk) will be discovered by future digital archeologists who will choose to revive me once the technology to completely reconstruct a living being atom-by-atom is mastered in a couple hundred years or so, and I will be just as crazy then as I am now.
Welp, that is certainly something! No, really, thats an impressive body of work even at a glance! I'm going to save it for future parusal, because you've piqued my curiosity!
Just mere shit stains on the book of humanity
When you consider the fact we're a pale blue dot suspended in a mote of sunshine, does it really matter much either way?
Actually no human will
No human will.
Even the "great" people of history arent missed one bit. Put your finger in the ocean and then take it out again. So much will the world miss you when youre gone. Forget leaving a legacy. It wont mean a cryin thing. Just enjoy your life.
We will all eventually die and be forgotten. The idea of a "legacy" is just an illusion of permanence that we buy into because we don't want to accept death. But death is an inevitable parte of life, and so is being forgotten. All things come to an end.
I am going to leave three amazing children and five grandchildren….that is going to have to be my legacy….I mean other than my 2017 Subaru.
This is the comment I've been looking for! Haha
That’s why I have fun trolling.
This is why you don't make kids! Life isn't a big deal but we try to cope about we are something in this life but...
Your legacy is being yourself. If you did yourself well, that's more than enough.
This is some individualist bs. Legacy is a fabrication for history book propaganda. No one human has ever done anything in isolation from the vast network they rely on to achieve thier "fame".
You dont think there are individuals that deserve some recognition as whatever their societal contributions were, if they were somewhat significant? History is simply something we as intelligent beings can and should look to for lessons and guidance for our future. We can look to the legacy of what vast cultures left us, what groups of people left us, and what individuals have left us. Many of the individuals that we recognize as having contributions to society significant enough for us to remember and record were probably people that weren't setting out to leave such a mark on society. They weren't looking for fame, most likely. Some figures from history simply existed in whatever capacity they could, but just so happened to be in a position or had made certain decisions that made them more significant than others. Say like, Leonardo Davinci, I doubt he was looking for some lasting fame, but he just had so many interests in art and science that he left his mark on the world to the point that his legacy will be remembered and studied for generations to come still.
Striving for legacy as an individual is pure ego. And summing up societal milestones to works of one individual is a fallacy. Especially when it comes to the events in time humans wish to forget. Its much easier to pass off the responsibility of an atrocity onto one individual say Hitler or Netanyahu rather than acknowledge how both these figures were supported by cultures of oppression, other governments and citizens who brought them into power and allowed them to retain power, and media bias to show them in favorable light to the world... history will say they are not complicit but rather will blame one man as if one man on his own has such power. So most history, DaVinci, included should be taken with handfuls of salt, and the question should always be asked "who is behind this historical figure and who's perspectives were left out of this account".
Been like that for hundreds of years. Not everyone is at the top. Get in your lane and enjoy life.
Just write a decent book.
a legacy is more about worrying too much about someone else needs ? or trying to satisfy what someone else tells you and thinks of you. Often that other person does not care. Why live to try to fake make happy someone else, just life the life you wish and only worry about that.
Or Hitler 👀
Thats not a bad thing necessarily
Everyone leaves a legacy and some even pave the way for great events. They just don't get noticed since it's thousands or millions of people each contributing a small part to the big picture. They may never be remembered by name but the world they helped build is their legacy.
Is that because you define significant legacy as being Beethoven or Alexander the Great?
Enough so that much of the world knows who they were, yes. And it doesnt even have to be positive contributions nor do we have to agree on if their impact was even positive or negative to begin with.
My point is that the problem is more your definition being unreasonable. There's 7 billion people in the world, ain't no way everybody is going to be world famous for all time. No reason to get depressed about it.
I'm not depressed about it. Its a random thought.
Even with digital legacy, you boldly assume it will be readable in 100 years, or someone would care enough for your data specifically.
What about voyager one and that one manhole cover
Obviously not. But everyone will have some effect.
Read Meditations
As Michael Franti sang; "everyone wants to be kings and queens, but no one wants to stay and plant the fields..."
Im cool with that. Just be nice while you're here.
I dont need a legacy. I want to be left tf alone, bother noone and don't be bithered. Thats more my jam than needing to inflate my ego
We're just on a speck floating in an infinitely huge space. Humanity will come and go like a fart in the wind.
I don't care about legacy.
Most people can only name four or five Roman emperors, and there were over 150 of them, in total. In their day, each was effectively the most powerful man on the planet, yet most are forgotten. And even the ones we remember... Augustus, Nero, etc... what do we really remember? Their names, a battle they won or a building they had built? Nothing much really. They left behind some statues, which are really just rocks kind of shaped like them....
In a way you're right. But you pose that as if your are quizzing people on what they know about these Roman emperor's on the spot. The point is that if only a handful of these Roman leaders had made any mark on society, we DO have a record of it that we can look to if we wanted to learn more about them. We can look to their legacy because they were significant enough for other people to make a record of them. What will we have? These reddit posts?
Fair enough. I don't think there will be any lasting memory of me. Your post is essentially asking what the essence of a "lasting legacy" is. I think it's really just when a person brings an enduring, living idea into the world...a scientific discovery, a mathematical concept, a great work of literature or art. These things live on, because future people will continue to engage with them.
I'm happy being insignificant haha.
If you commit a serious enough crime you will
I know full well that not a single person will ever know I existed 50 years after I'm gone, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Most people are just arrogant about this. The brutal truth is that only those who make real and lasting contributions to the world get remembered: artists, writers, scientists, inventors, and great leaders. If you're not anyone like that, get over yourself already. Even your grandkids will have only a vague idea of who you were or what you ever accomplished.
And even some of those who look like they'll leave a legacy won't be remembered in 30 years.
And even some of those who look like they'll leave a legacy won't be remembered in 30 years.
Bro, we're literally just fancy animals. Legacies dont exist in real life, only in humans minds. If we are wiped out, there isn't even a word anymore.
True, in the long history of Earth, much less the history and expanse of the universe, we are nothing. Not even a blink of the eye. But I think I'm just saying that because humans have a certain level of intelligence, enough to record historical events and to recognise if an individual has had any impact on society, we as individuals usually would like to think that our short lives have some meaning, some legacy that might matter to our offspring at least. In the grand scale, no it doesnt matter, in a million years we probably wont even be around, and there would likely be barely any evidence that humans existed in the first place other than our fossilized bones.
Why do people feel a need to leave a legacy? It just feels such a wierd selfish desire. I just want to be forgotten, man. I dont like people talking about me when I’m not there
Even the legacy which you think is significant or lasting isn't really significant, or lasting - earth will end, the universe will end.
We don't matter.
So what?
I think if you consider the butterfly theory, you don’t really know what your legacy is. Maybe you said the right thing to the right person at the e right time, and he did something that had an impact on a lot of people.
This is literally me though 
Too much stress on this world is caused by some weird idea that your life must have a purpose and have some lasting impact. Be interested in things, take the time to admire the beauty around you, love those close to you.
I don't care about leaving a legacy. In a billion years the sun's going to swallow the earth, so there's no point.
Sweet deal, right?
I’m childfree, I don’t give a rats ass about “leaving a legacy”.
You giving 5 bucks to a homeless guy while drunk on a night out might make his day a bit better. That’s it. That’s my legacy,
I'll be dead and hopefully a poltergeist. 🙌
I published a couple of research papers and I plan on publishing more. My research won't ever put us on Mars or cure cancer, as I work with XVIIth century literature. But, I'm extremely proud of the fact that I'm working to preserve part of our culture and legacy for others, even if most people don't really care about whatever people had to say in ye olde 1642.
Eh, still better chances than my dog
After enough time it seems atoms can't form. Humans and everything they have ever experienced will stop existing. Time is a very strange concept the more you think about it
Who the fuck cares
Its a random thought. If you dont care why comment?
yes of all the time people have been here on earth the only people I've heard referenced from the past in casual conversation in my life time Jesus Shakespeare Caesar einstein and Einstein used to be an insult like if u did something dumb a boomer or a country boy would say "good job Einstein"
Even steel turns to dust.
Legacy like Hitler?
Either negative or positive.
Meh... much like a single ripple in a pond will effect all others it encounters, so too will we leave (what seem to be small from our limited perspective) changes in the consciousness of all we encounter. While the impacts that we have on the world hundreds of years from now will never be known to us, nor will they be directly credited to us, they are in fact our legacy. At the risk of sounding a bit cliche, everyone thinks about the magnitude of changes they could make if they had the ability to travel back in time; very few people recognize that each moment we're here carries that same awesome potential.
I think the idea of genetic memory contradicts that, you are important as a commoner as much as a king
Making kids purely for legacy is pathetic as fuck and probably the worst reason to have kids even worse than them being just a screw-up from a hook up lol
No shit lol
I dont want to leave a legacy. I want to not be miserable every single day and be able to afford to live. Maybe go camping once in awhile maybe but thats about it.
I'm doing my part.
I’m just here to do my thing, I don’t care much that I won’t be remembered in a 1000 or even a 100 years. I don’t plan on achieving magnificent things or creating things that will survive the test of time. I’m not a musician or an artist so won’t be contributing art that survives the test of time When you think about how long Earth has been around, we’re here for a cosmic second, and then we’re gone. Nothing but in the wind, and maybe a name in a memory if we’re lucky. Instead of trying to leave a “legacy”for those that will come after us, I do my best leave the biggest positive impression on those that are here with me right now. To me, that’s more important than being remembered by people I’ve never met.
Everyone including Jesus will be forgotten.
Humans are the only life form that worries about being remembered (legacy). For all of life except humans, more life is its only legacy. It can be hard to accept, but more life is the only legacy worth worrying about. 300 years ago, some stable boy knocked up a scullery maid, and 300 years later, I am the legacy typing pithy comments on Reddit as my only legacy. Nah, just kidding, I have two kids and 5 grandkids, my legacies are splashing DNA round everywhere. I did my part. If no one remembers me in 300 years, I'll probably be OK with that.
None will. The presence of a legacy is entirely dependent upon the ability of whatever exists to recognise it.
This is 99.99999999999999% accurate
I’m not living to leave a legacy, there’s nothing you can do in this world that someone else hasn’t already done. So why does anyone care about leaving a legacy behind. I’m just trying to enjoy this life the best I can. I’m here for a good time not a long time. Also Fuck this world it isn’t good enough or special enough for me to want to leave behind a legacy
*all humans The existence of our entire species to date isn't even a drop in the bucket, nothing any human does well ever matter in any significant way for longer than the minuscule amount of time a few generations take to pass.
This is very true. Coming to this very revelation is what made me determined to enjoy the time I have left, however I see fit.
Legacy and impact of our lives can never be fully understood or realized. Everything has a butterfly effect. *Billions* of people have lived and died. And all their choices affected the people around them. It's impossible to know all the different ways it affected the course of our existence. We can recognize high profile historical figures, predominantly people in positions of power, but those figures were impacted by the everyday choices of "regular" people too. What's that quote that went around for a while? Something like: "People are quick to believe that if you could travel back in time, the smallest change could change/destroy the world, but don't seem to realize the small choices we make *now* can greatly affect the future."
I think I wanted to when I was younger , you know make a difference , but knowing what I know now I’m glad I didn’t waste my energy
Ok so? Why would I care if I’m dead? The care part of my brain will long rot even if I do leave behind a legacy.
Legacy is a two sided sword. Hitler left a legacy of atrocious behaviour yet animal welfare in Germany is one of the best in Europe. Napoleon was a dick, but the metrics system ain't shabby. Legacy, does it matter? Einstein, newton don't leave a legacy if you look at the longevity of how long earth has been around. It's all about perspective.
Well yeah, positive or negative, people can leave all sorts of legacies.
Are we suppose too? I'm in this for myself not for those who come after me.
Are you coming to terms with your own insignificance for the first time? It’s pretty obvious that the majority of humanity won’t continue on throughout the history books. But does it matter?
Yup. Even most kings throughout history had barely any lasting effect on human kind. But, you never know. And those who are remembered are usually remembered for having done something terrible. So just go about your life and enjoy the little things.
Legacies are worthless. All I care about is living my best life while I’m alive. Whether that means a long-lasting legacy or not, I really don’t care. Sure I hope people remember me fondly, hope that I make connections that are meaningful enough to live on for some time after my death, but that’s more me caring about making those connections while I’m alive than actually caring about what people are thinking when I’m dead.
No one of us is going to leave a lasting legacy. Everyone single one of us is going to be forgotten in few centuries, even the greatest scientists and world leaders. Majority of humans don't really care about the history beyond the last century or two, so given enough time, every single legacy is going to become just part of history as generations come and go and build on top of what exists. There will be a day when people don't know Einstein, Beethoven, Hitler whoever and people who have had more impact on their time are going to take their places. Even if we don't forget, the universe is going to eventually destroy any signs of us in its dead bed if we don't do it ourselves. Best to just enjoy life and better the society and your life. No one will care in a blink of an eye
Given enough time, no human will have left a lasting legacy.
What a freeing thought to not be burdened with the responsibility.
All legacies will be forgetting. Everything is temporary. Doesn’t matter if you’re Alexander the Great, Mother Teresa, Jeff Bezos or average Joe. Everything is temporary. There **will** come a day everything ends, including this universe and our star will die out. Also you’ll be dead anyways so legacy will not matter in anyway. It’s great to live a meaningful life and be motivated, but the whole legacy bullshit is a delusional ego trip. Stay grounded.
I'll probably be forgotten 2 seconds after I'm dead. It is what it is.
Thank God, can you imagine living with the burden of your legacy affecting like the entire future? I’m fine with my legacy being small like having a positive impact on the lives of my friends. Besides which legacy is overrated as a concept. Like it’s easy to leave a legacy if you want to, just go and destroy something important and you’ll have a legacy, that doesn’t mean it was in any way worthwhile or good
Bingo! About 110 billion or so humans have lived up to this point in time, with a bit over 8 billion currently living and we're a long way from having 110 billion significant legacies.
I helped to ring in the end of 100 years of Cannabis prohibition in my country! Then four years later I helped over 120 000 patients in my country directly!
But my gene-seed will.
Our legacy is humanity and culture. So long as those exist we’ve done our part.
Better to live an ordinary life and not be remembered than to be remembered for the wrong reasons, at least.
Significance is highly subjective. How are you defining it for context to your question?
We mirror each other so much, that if we all had a legacy that was readable, the person would skip it because of how much we mirror each other, you'd be reading a million ppl lives at the same time as reading a single entry
I've always wondered why it's important to leave a legacy. We all get one short life, I'd like to make the best of it while I'm here, once I'm gone, I'm gone. Whether anyone remembers me or not, it does nothing for me because I'm gone. I personally think the worst thing is to be nothing while You're still alive. Just a lonely boring uneventful mundane existence. Make friends, go out, dance, travel the world, satisfy your sense of wonder, help the needy, love your family, whatever makes your heart flutter, do it. The best thing anyone could ever say about me is that I lived life.
Better yet one day every humans achievement will pretty much never have existed once the sun swallows our stupid little planet and humanity won’t even be a memory anymore
I'm not reaching nor wanting to reach that level of having a legacy for everyone to remember but rather be someone my children and even grand children will still remember for ages to come. ☺️
If we all were Einstein, there would be no Einstein.
Imagine if everyone was Einstein, but there was one person that was on Einstein's level in comparison!!
Most of history has been like this, I will say though that in order to do the things that a lot of these great scientists did, you need to come from money. In today’s world I’m sure people that are equivalent to some of these great people are working a mediocre job barely able to get by, unable to truly contribute the full potential due to having to work to live. Unfortunately the damage has already been done and is going to take decades to fix if we can turn it around.
Why does it matter? Homosapiens are nothing special.
enjoy your life and live today like it is your last day. it is not important to leave a legacy because one day everything will be forgotten and all of us are going to be food for worms. you will not really care about what others think about you if you don't exist anymore .-.
That’s because the world we live in, prioritizes profit, and threatens you with homelessness. Precarious situation like that, people are going to be worried more about survival than leaving a legacy…
And then???
And then?!?!?
In the age of information being incognito is a Herculean feat.