Oh, that’s a good point! You could buy 100 million copies of your memoirs and have it be number one on the all-time bestseller lists, only behind the Bible and Harry Potter…
There are sites which archive internet content. The site archive.org is one place that saves websites. Usenet newsgroup (kinda the original message board system for the internet) posts are archived in places like https://groups.google.com. Uploading your memoir to the web in a place where it’s archived is likely going to cause it be preserved for a very long time. Even if those original sites go down, likely other archives of that data will persist. Who knows if anyone will ever go into the archive to read your memoir, but at least it will be out there if anyone wants to look for it.
Arnold something, iirc.
Well, then we’ve already done it! Click here to see the General Questions board on Apr 5 2001. (Chronos has been moderating for a long time!)
Have to post the quote from Woody Allen
“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.”
Getting Shakespeare to write a play about you would work also.
[Unrelated aside] Wow … there was a lot more activity back then. I count 50 topics bumped in a span of ~6.5 hours, while the last 50 General Questions topics bumped since the latest one today, covers a span of over 3 days!
It really gives a new perspective on that thread discussing the SDMB’s declining membership. Although, speaking personally, I actually prefer the slower pace of today, because there is no way I can keep up with that velocity of topics/activity back in 2001.
How long might someone expect to be remembered in the best case? What historical human is the most ancient one still widely remembered for their deeds? (In other words, not someone famous only for being found as a fossil.) If humans or post-humans are still around in 10,000 or 100,000 years, will our civilization still know who Einstein was?
I’m sure that it is possible to compile a list of such people (though, as Wikipedia is wont to say, it “may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness”).
The sad part is, though, that the oldest people on that list are often subject to debate on whether they were real or just myths. Imagine the conversation:
A: “Look at that! Five thousand years later, and they still remember what I did! I’m immortal!”
B: “Ummm, yes, but 90% of them think you’re just a story and never existed.”
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Make a bajillion dollars
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Use it to endow buildings at universities, hospitals, libraries, parks, etc. With a little luck, you can be the next Robert de Sorbon.
Jim Theis achieved immortality (of a sort) when he wrote The Eye of Argon
Maybe there’s hope for the rest of us.
Write something like “Johnny B. Goode” and hope NASA puts it on a record and launches it into the Cosmos.
Slaughtering millions of people has been a pretty reliable way in the past.
If you’d prefer a more benevolent path try to invent something which permanently changes the world, a singularity type of event.
I’ve got it! Start a religion. Members have to read your book or go to Hell.
Very much the former. I have no control (short of persuading Random House to publish it) over who reads it, if anyone.
This is a useful thread to me–some funny responses, but also some ideas that may work out, especially those from filmore, which sound like what I’m looking for.
My kids have zero interest (as I did when I was their age–now I’d kill to read my dad’s memoirs) and they might not have kids, so that’s really not an encouraging route to take. I guess this is so I can tell them where to find my memoir if they ever do show interest.
Be the first human to step foot on Mars. Guaranteed immortality.
You’ll never be forgotten; just like Neil Diamond.
Write your memoir on some extremely durable material (like a clay tablet, but be sure to fire it) and bury it in a place where someone might reasonably be expected to unearth it in a few thousand years, but not sooner. It will be of great interest to scholars then.
All the more so if you inscribe it in three languages.
- Write your bio.
- Publish it in the vanity press.
- Donate a copy to the local library.
- Pay for an obituary in the city newspaper, mentioning your published obit.
Although I would suggest waiting for another Republikan president. Especially if Chump manages to weasel his way back in.
Disclaimer: Shooting presidents is bad and not recommended in most situations.