Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by echelon 919 days ago
Vehement disagree. Many of the early communities I participated in are gone forever, and it's a shame to think of how much more has been lost to time.

In the absolute limit, I hope our future descendents reconstruct the past light cone and can replay all of our biochemical thoughts and emotions. Perhaps even simulating our existence and perception to exacting precision.

Maybe they'll get to see t-rexes in their natural habitat, visit lost 90s websites, and feel what taking the organic chemistry final was like.

2 comments

I’ve had this exact thought a million times.

The first time I tripped acid - I remember writing a page of notes on how sad I felt that I would never get to experience the exact way a memory occurred to me in the past.

What’s even more saddening is that with tech like Rewind, and what’ll be the future of Rewind in 10-20 years, by 2040, I fully expect all memories/events ever produced to be logged in an almost endless database of all human experience.

But - because time is linear, we wouldn’t ever fully be able to simulate the past of say everything before 2030? And that’s just so sad.

In one way it’s sad, but if we archive everything from 2040 onward I guarantee that any pre 2040 years will always seem like a better time.
Kind of insane to think about. Part of me is horrified to think that this time could be seen as “better” but another part says that past was never what you remember it as…
How about if the community participants actively want to have a ephemeral experience that is then deleted for ever? Why do you (as someone who is doing no work and not contributing) have some right to deny them that?