They say that what is written on the internet will stay there forever. I’m sure this isn’t exactly true since servers fry and yet unknown computer viruses could possibly wreak complete havoc.
But let’s just suppose that what is written on the internet does stay forever. As I was thinking about this I also happened to be in the course of reading books about why the world exists, time being an illusion and that the wise one has to admit we really cannot be sure about anything.
The important point of that last paragraph is that time is an illusion. I of course cannot comprehend this very deeply but I’m willing to put my faith in it since the idea comes directly from Einstein.
Therefore, given that what is written on the internet stays there forever, AND time is an illusion, I should be able to write directly to my own descendants!
It is unfortunate that they are unable to write back. Well, actually they can write back but given the nature of time, reality as I perceive it, or whatever, I cannot read their responses.
In any case, I’m excited about the prospect of writing to my own descendants. I enjoy writing but until now I really had no recipient that I really wanted to write to! Writing to “the internet” is not exciting. The internet is just a network, a faceless void and although I can see the post hits go upward it and the page stats tell me people appear to be reading, it seems the same to me as if I wrote the words on paper, folded them into a paper airplane and sent it flying into the Pacific ocean. Writing to the internet brings me no joy.
Writing to friends and family seem to be something more worthwhile. But you see, this website called Facebook started to become popular about 8 years ago and people suddenly lost the ability to write anything longer than two sentences to a paragraph at best. In fact, I can only remember receiving two letters/e-mails/written communication in the past 8 years that consisted of more than two paragraphs.
Apparently, writing to each other isn’t something we do anymore in this year of 2014. Hell, people don’t even pick up the phone and call each other anymore, it is all texting! In fact we probably shouldn’t call it a phone since the primary function people use it for seem to be Facebook and texting. There is another name which has started to catch on which is “mobile device.” I imagine the word “phone” will fade from general usage over the coming decades.
Now that I have explained myself and my reasons for doing so, let’s get started!
HELLO MY DESCENDANTS! This is your father, Grand-Father, Great Great Grand-Father etc. At the time of this writing I am 36 years old and have one son given to me by my most excellent wife.
I should probably mention that I will not be getting too personal or using names since this is going on the internet for anyone to see. But you, my descendants, should be able to figure out who I’m referring to in these letters.
I’ve kept a blog since 2001, which from your history books, will note that the Iraq war was going on. I was living in Japan and really wanted to make my feelings known! So I started my blog. You’ll notice that this blog does not go back to 2001. The reason is I was using a hosting service at the time and was not savvy enough to know how to transfer the posts when I switched to a different service. Over time they became lost and I cannot find any trace of them.
This exact same fate is what will happen to many blogs and posts on the internet these days. In fact, the only things that stay forever are those which find their ways to the big companies who retain data forever: Google, Yahoo, NSA etc. Small little blogs as mine usually just disappear over time.
The reason these posts haven’t disappeared is because I own the hardware they are stored on. I’ll keep them safe, sound and backed up for the next 40 years or so and then pass them off to the boys who I’ll also raise to be very good with technology. By then everything should be pretty much automatic and effortless. The NSA should also have a complete record of everything we do so perhaps this little project isn’t necessary. You could just request the Electronic Profile of me from the NSA and there you go! Just for the record, I’ve never looked at any dirty websites, the NSA is not be truthful on this point.
As you can see, I’ve got posts going back to 2004 but they are rather sparse. I do hope I’ll be able to keep up my motivation with this LTMD project and hopefully by the end of my life you’ll have a libraries worth of reading from me should you be so inclined to want to read them.
I’ve always thought that it would be fascinating to be able to read a journal of my own grandfather, let alone writings from an ancestor 500 years ago. Perhaps in 500 years you’ll be able to scan everything I write and along with my pictures compile them into a life sized hologram that could recite these words to you at your convenience! If you do so please reduce my gut by 10% and give me a handlebar mustache. I think that would be funny.
Well, as I like to keep every post pretty much on point, I think this should serve well as a first post without me going off on too many tangents.
