“I cannot imagine the future, but I care about it. I know I am a part of a story that starts long before I can remember and continues long beyond when anyone will remember me. I sense that I am alive at a time of important change, and I feel a responsibility to make sure that the change comes out well. I plant my acorns knowing that I will never live to harvest the oaks.” ~ Danny Hillis

How would you live your life if you took the next 10,000 years into account? If you geared your actions to benefit whoever or whatever might be around at that time? We don’t know what everything will be like in 10,000 years. We don’t know how we will travel, communicate, or if the human race or this planet will even be around. But, for this essay, let’s be hopeful and say that the world will be around and there will be living beings on it, all of them our descendants in some way. How would we make choices today, knowing that we will be the ancestors one day? What would we make if we wanted it to last and be of benefit 10,000 years from now?