"It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens
Sad day. It'll be even sadder when there's no living person who's been on the moon.
^^ I meant more that assuming human civilisation survives and keeps any reliable records of the past into the distant future, the first man to walk on the moon will likely be one of the few names to hold any lasting significance. I think Ballard was pushing it on the dates, but I fully agree with the sentiment.
As long as we subscribe to the notion of individual identity and the desire to expand our physical presence beyond our hoe planet, the pioneers of space exploration will remain historically relevant to some degree, just as the Epic of Gilgamesh remains relevant as the first epic known to have been put into writing. As a species, we tend to remember our first big steps in the long run, even if we forget them in the short one.
The conqueror mindset predates Western civilisation by a good long while, but I do not think that remembering Neil Armstrong or the Apollo landing will necessarily have anything to do with that.
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"Neil Armstrong, perhaps the only individual of the 20th century who will be remembered in 50,000 years" - J.G. Ballard
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
For now, farewell, Mr. Armstrong.