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Sad_Philly_Fan t1_ja6e1lq wrote

It’s kind of hard to remember people you’ve never meant. The oldest people alive may only remember a few people born in the mid 1800s, if that. Nobody personally knew anyone from before that and they’ll be forgotten if they weren’t written down in history.

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batsofburden OP t1_ja6eews wrote

Idk if you ever go to antique or secondhand stores, but there will often be photographs or even paintings of people who are long gone. That's when I start thinking about stuff like this, just knowing that aside from me looking at their old picture, no one even recognizes their prior existence at this point. Then multiply that out by the millions of people who once walked this Earth, it's a lot to think about.

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Sad_Philly_Fan t1_ja9yy70 wrote

This is all true, but only a few people will be remembered from the past couple hundred years while the rest will be forgotten, and that’s the way it’ll always be. For me, I can only easily name around 30 people from before the year 1000, and those are some of the most famous ever. So unless you do something to leave a huge mark on the world, you can expect to be completely forgotten in around 200 years.

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batsofburden OP t1_jaaaind wrote

I just find this wholescale erasure of so many unique individuals into a vast cosmic nothingness to be a bit sad.

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