Saturday, June 18, 2005

Immortality

Not so long ago, in a galaxy very near our own, previous generations lived on through a letter they wrote, pictures in a photo album, or some old belongings, all of which wither and fade after time. The memory of what they thought, how they lived, their sense of humor, all diminishing with time. The memory of my grandparents, who they were, what they stood for, the sound of their voice, will probably die with my brothers and I. Little, if anything, of the actual people from generations past have survived the cruel eraser of time. But we've become a digital society. This is the information/technology age. We have the internet. What we say, the pictures we post, our thoughts and ideas, our websites and our blogs will live on, even in some small way, long after we're gone...like a tiny digital time capsule, maybe preserving just a small piece of who we are, and what it meant to be alive at this point in time.

4 comments:

Kingfisher said...

Very profound. I think these kind of thoughts all the time. Prolly cuz we're bros.

Miss you. Love you.

R.

Kingfisher said...

I dunno. I'm not sure even this will last. What if blogger goes bankrupt? What if technology changes even faster and everything we do now becomes obsolete? This medium is more transient than the rock carvings of the Anasazi or the Egyptians. I don't think much of this will last either.

The older I get, the more I realize how temporary everyhting is. Even suns die.

jazz bird said...

Great post. That's quite a thinker. It's a little staggaring to think of the technology that's evolved during our lifetime.

On the flipside, though, I wonder how much the over-stimulation, instant-gratification and mass amount of information and communication will have its effect on the world.

I can only hope that whatever technology evolves restains the romance of discovering ones roots. Hopefully, finding some blog entries may be just as with those old albums and few precious letters of days gone by. Low-res web photos may become the equivalent of our finding the old black & whites. Who knows?

Anonymous said...

Okay...as your Mom, I just have to respond to the fact that thoughts and musings put into blogs etc. will last as well as paper or even be as important.. Yeah...I know...I'm not techno at all. But I would rather see the journals of Lewis and Clark in a faded leatherbound book than read it on a computer screen. There is just something about handwriting that is so personal...that leaves you thinking you understand that person a little. Typing is so generic. The journals of pioneer women have a lot more personal interest when read as writings than if you see them on a screen. I have a feeling that all the things we presently think...but only write in emails or blogs...are leaving a big fat zero to our decendents because it will all be erased, not found intact in someone's attic in 100 years. And by the way...you boys better publish all my journals after I'm gone! xxxoooMom