What do the living owe the dead and those not yet born?
Hank finds caring about life beyond his own lifespan easy, but in 2026 he doubted that anyone knows what will help people in the long term.
Axis: we owe them a great deal (remembrance, stewardship) ... we owe them nothing
Positions by date: 8 records in 8 videos. The position did not change in these records.
John
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-05-27 | first on record | John holds that we owe the dead and the not-yet-living the same thing, the daily awareness that human life is ours only in trust, and that we will be remembered collectively. | Older Than Gravity In Bruges: Thoughts from Places 00:01:50 |
| 2020-12-15 | restate | John says those people built the place where he lives, and he and his neighbors are now making Indianapolis what it will be for future residents, when he himself lies at Crown Hill. | America's Capital of Dead Vice Presidents 00:02:26 |
| 2024-06-04 | restate | John says we don't need to remember or record everything: we remember what we can and record what we want, not for posterity but for people sharing the planet now and those after us. | how it all ends 00:03:53 |
| 2024-08-20 | restate | John thinks of the Wimbledon fans who died, who passed the club on and fought up the leagues at tiny grounds: a community includes its ancestors. | Thoughts from Places: BROMLEY! 00:01:56 |
Hank
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-06-07 | first on record | Hank: babies' cuteness reminds us that today's decisions will affect future generations, and lets us feel part of a continuum of life. | How To Be a Baby Properly 00:02:55 |
| 2018-10-19 | restate | The description says being scared by the graph depends on caring about human life beyond one's own lifespan, which seems easy to Hank but maybe not to many others. | This is the scariest graph I've ever seen video description |
| 2026-01-09 | restate | Hank calls this fine in theory, especially for concrete aims like keeping the Earth livable, but in his 45 years he has seen that we just don't know what will help people in the long term. | There is Only One Source of Value 00:01:27 |
| 2026-08-21 | restate | Hank is not fully on board: there is an okay chance a million people thriving is good because they exist and thrive rather than suffer, not as thriving times a million. | Not (Just) Dunking on Jeff Bezos 00:06:38 |