- Our lifespan is very short in the grand scheme of things
- The sun has been burning for 5 Billion years
- It will burn for 5 Billion more
- The Milky Way and Andromeda will collide in 3 Billion years
- There is a human desire for permanence
- Our oldest story is the Epic of Gilgamesh, about 4,000 years old
- The topics are timeless - they are universal to our experience
- With our short lives, how can we have anything permanent?
- Our buildings will crumble
- Our ink will often fade
- Computer media has a shelf life much shorter than a normal lifespan
- How about lasting long beyond us?
- Old stories do this, we remember kings of a few hundred years ago, people from the Bible, etc last
- A handful of well-built, well positioned and lucky buildings to
- The oldest of these is a French building from about 4850BC
- There are about 78 buildings older than Gilgamesh
- Consider how many buildings have been build since 4850.
- What else can last?
- Carvings can last a long time
- Let’s look outside the human world somewhat
- Thermodynamics has the concept of a dissipative system
- Made from the interaction of components rather than the component itself
- Tornado, convection (boiling), life
- At one point my company created an integration between two systems. As parts were replaced, the structure remained
- Organizations are dissipative systems. People move in and move out but the structures can remain for a long time
- Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan: The oldest hotel in the world started in 705AD - over 1300 years ago. It has gone through 52 generations.
- Kongo Gumi: The only older company is a construction company started in 578AD. In 2006 it became part of another company
- Sports teams - “rooting for laundry”
- True in some sense
- Also dissipative, however
- Some cities also are very old
- The oldest city is Argos, Greece. It has moved between village and city status for around 7,000 years. Its recorded history starts around 4,000 years ago
- Cities are clearly dissipative systems - made of people, buildings and streets. None of these are permanent
- How do you build a lasting organization?
- You need to have symbols and values
- The oldest flag is Scottish flag from 832
- Think of the crown on the top of the “Be Calm and Carry On” sign - why was that there?
- How about the symbol of the cross, the crescent or the star of David?
- You need a system for people to move in and out of
- Nations and large religions organizations have systems for succession
- Companies often have a system for succession as well, often supported by the state and/or its bylaws
- You need values
- Values are passed down with in a religion, a language and a nation
- Values define what membership actually means
- You need to have symbols and values
- How can you have a lasting effect? How can your memory endure?
- You probably already have had a lasting effect
- Cryogenics is possible however may never lead anywhere
- You can either do something so grand that it will be written in history books
- This is harder than you might expect
- Being common knowledge is an even higher bar.
- Who was President of the United State 15 years before you were born?
- Your family, your values and your records
- Teach your family values you think are important
- Record your life so that it can be shared
- Journals, photos, etc
- There are projects to help this work for you for the future
- Perkeep - A tool for organizing data/files in a way that should be easy for a future digital archivist to decode even without a specification
- Permanent.org - An organization dedicated to permanent personal archives funded through a foundation
- Enjoy the legacy of our fore-bearers. Leave a great legacy for those who come after us ___
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We explore the idea of permanence vs the human timescale. We talk about what it takes to have a permanent, or at least long-lived, effect on the world.