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Legacies: Planting seeds in garden you never get to see
Topic: Legacies
by Jeffery, 2019 Cohort
What is a legacy?#
Legacies are the stories that connect the past to the present. As human beings, we dread what people will think of us when we are gone. In every thought and action, we set off ripples that reflect that impact of our existence on reality. In some ways, the human pursuit of a lasting legacy is bound by our innate biology, and our drive to reproduce. The very biological purpose of existence to propagate our genetic legacy as much as possible. Our obsession with being remembered, might itself be a metaphorical manifestation of procreation, creating “copies” of ourselves in books, minds, and hearts.
Should we judge people by their legacy?#
In reality, our legacy is not up to us to decide. In the same way that history is written by the victors, legacies are written by the survivors. For example, when Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, could he have foreseen his legacy? Is communism as it is understood today, still part of his legacy? Even if he never intended for the suffering and war that have been waged in the name of his ideas? In the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement, many people have begun questioning the legacies of people who we once considered to be great and mighty. Before we begin to burn effigies, it may be pertinent to ask if judgement of legacies is necessary at all.
In computing and systems management, “legacy systems” refer to inherited sets of code or instruction, which persist and remain in place because of their functional importance despite being outdated and incomprehensible. Traditionally, legacy code is seen as obsolete, poorly written and a constant drain on resources. However, recently there has been a push to rethink our perspectives on that which is old and inefficient. The in the same way that the legacy of a person may be a product of their time, the legacy of systems foremost reflects the need to solve the problems that persisted when they were created. They are not an accurate solution of any anticipated future problems.
Legacy beyond humanity#
In the strictest sense, legacies are what remain after something is gone. Therefore, legacy is not an exclusively human condition, as every thing that has ever existed could be thought of as having a legacy. As each of us dies our legacy is encompasses more than we have left on society and the human world, it is also on the earth into which our flesh decays and the grass that grows on our graves. Every atom we touch and interact with has been irreversibly influenced by our existence. In this way, no one is ever completely forgotten, but their legacy simply fades into smaller and smaller pieces, grower ever harder to reconstruct.
To take it a step further, we can think of each idea, object, or person, as the culmination of a multitude of legacies, a conduit through which an almost infinite number of objects, ideas, and people are remembered implicitly or explicitly.
Additional Resources#
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Disclaimer#
This content has been contributed by a student as part of a learning activity.
If there are inaccuracies, or opportunities for significant improvement on this topic, feedback is welcome on how to improve the resource.
You can improve articles on this topic as a student in "Unravelling Complexity", or by including the amendments in an email to: Chris.Browne@anu.edu.au
What is a legacy?#
Legacies are the stories that connect the past to the present. As human beings, we dread what people will think of us when we are gone. In every thought and action, we set off ripples that reflect that impact of our existence on reality. In some ways, the human pursuit of a lasting legacy is bound by our innate biology, and our drive to reproduce. The very biological purpose of existence to propagate our genetic legacy as much as possible. Our obsession with being remembered, might itself be a metaphorical manifestation of procreation, creating “copies” of ourselves in books, minds, and hearts.
Should we judge people by their legacy?#
In reality, our legacy is not up to us to decide. In the same way that history is written by the victors, legacies are written by the survivors. For example, when Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, could he have foreseen his legacy? Is communism as it is understood today, still part of his legacy? Even if he never intended for the suffering and war that have been waged in the name of his ideas? In the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement, many people have begun questioning the legacies of people who we once considered to be great and mighty. Before we begin to burn effigies, it may be pertinent to ask if judgement of legacies is necessary at all.
In computing and systems management, “legacy systems” refer to inherited sets of code or instruction, which persist and remain in place because of their functional importance despite being outdated and incomprehensible. Traditionally, legacy code is seen as obsolete, poorly written and a constant drain on resources. However, recently there has been a push to rethink our perspectives on that which is old and inefficient. The in the same way that the legacy of a person may be a product of their time, the legacy of systems foremost reflects the need to solve the problems that persisted when they were created. They are not an accurate solution of any anticipated future problems.
Legacy beyond humanity#
In the strictest sense, legacies are what remain after something is gone. Therefore, legacy is not an exclusively human condition, as every thing that has ever existed could be thought of as having a legacy. As each of us dies our legacy is encompasses more than we have left on society and the human world, it is also on the earth into which our flesh decays and the grass that grows on our graves. Every atom we touch and interact with has been irreversibly influenced by our existence. In this way, no one is ever completely forgotten, but their legacy simply fades into smaller and smaller pieces, grower ever harder to reconstruct.
To take it a step further, we can think of each idea, object, or person, as the culmination of a multitude of legacies, a conduit through which an almost infinite number of objects, ideas, and people are remembered implicitly or explicitly.
Additional Resources#