Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Taking myself less seriously

Author:Paul Snively
Posted:9/11/2000; 4:44:55 PM
Topic:fork
Msg #:21204 (In response to 21200)
Prev/Next:21203 / 21205

Donald W. Larson: None of the other sperms made it out alive. I'm the last survivor.

If you haven't already read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, I urge you to do so, first of all because it's a ripping good read, but also because it introduces one of its major characters by describing him as a stupendous bad-ass descended from a long line of stupendous bad-asses, and pointing out that, as nightmarishly lethal memetically programmed killing machines go, he was one of the nicest you'd ever care to meet.

It really is awesome to stop for a moment and contemplate that in an implacably hostile environment, full of hot, corrosive gasses and continually bombarded with various forms of radiation, to say nothing of the various other life-forms that, all else being equal, would happily feast on our remains, we manage not only to survive, but to actively thrive and have such unlikely notions as "leisure" and even, God help us all, "luxury" have meaning.

Then we get to sit around and moan about people who seem to us to be too attached to whatever their conception of "leisure" and "luxury" is, instead of saying, by God, we're the top of the food chain: we've earned it.

Which leads to my favorite t-shirt philosophy: "My ancestors didn't fight their way to the top of the food chain so I could become vegetarian!"

There are responses to this message:

This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:56:39 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.