First man on the moon passes away at 82.
I give him a lot of credit never pushing himself to the forefront; a very humble man from my perspective.
http://www.examiner.com/article/neil-armstrong-first-man-on-the-moon-has-died-at-83
RIP good sir
I was inspired by Armstrong’s death to write this in another forum:
Can anyone think of a single human accomplishment more emblazoned with immortality than Neil Armstrong’s? This is an honest question. I mean, what has anyone ever done that is so obviously spectacular to everyone? We can all admire Einstein, but it’s really because we were told he was brilliant: most of us don’t understand his discoveries or what went into them. We need historical context to understand Alexander the Great’s achievements beyond tracing the borders on a map of his empire. Moses casts a large shadow, but his feat was, in the moment, as tiny as his tribe. But anyone anywhere at anytime, from the youngest illiterate child to the most experienced citizen of the world, must marvel at this notion: One day, a man stepped on the surface of the moon. That very thing, the one we see in the sky.
Anyone who accomplishes something great owes a lot to those before him and around him. This is true for Neil Armstrong probably more than Einstein or Alexander–in a sense he was just lucky enough to be mission commander on Apollo 11. The accomplishment belongs to everyone who participated in the Apollo program, it’s true, and I’m sure Armstrong was the first to admit it. But immortality only adheres to individuals, and he is that individual. That legacy, it seems to me, will never be diminished until, maybe, the day the idea of people living on other worlds becomes utterly unremarkable. Perhaps then, if it ever happens, Neil Armstrong’s voyage will seem obvious, self-evident, and mundane. Until then, what moment of what human life could be called more worthy of memory?
Um, as much as I like the guy, the rhetoric being said about him is outlandish.
He was a test pilot.
That’s not nothing, it was a incredibly difficult job, and he beat everyone else to get it. But he chosen by the government out of a pool of test pilots to be the guy that did it. He didn’t come up with the idea. He didn’t invent the concept. He didn’t build the rockets himself. He didn’t convince anybody to fund it. He didn’t fund it. He didn’t contribute key technical or scientific insights. If he’d never been born, the next best performer would have landed on the moon.
He wasn’t Space Jesus.
Just to pick a random example, the people responsible for modern medicine, from Pasteur and his predecessors, are about 1,000 times more “emblazoned with immortality.”
Look, the guy walked on the moon. The. Freaking. Moon. Now he’s gone.
This puts it a bit more eloquently.
Armstrong understood perfectly well what he was, namely a guy who happened to be picked to be the flesh and blood symbol of something much larger. To go all “He didn’t build that!” on his eulogizers is to misunderstand what exactly it is that they are eulogizing.
Duplicate thread - you might want to discuss this in the Everything Else forum.
But Jason he wasn’t just “a” man, he was an exceptional man. Maybe the next best guy would have been less skilled with decision making or piloting and spend 20 seconds more tying to get the LEM down, and forced to abort or even worse. Then if Apollo 12 didn’t make it for some reason and next up was Apollo 13. I am not sure that Richard Nixon would have pressed on and we still may never been on the moon.
I also think you underestimate the amount of engineering contributions, Armstrong and his fellow astronauts made to the Apollo program. The job of test pilot isn’t just a skilled pilot but an engineer/pilot.
But the eulogy is for the “giant leap for mankind” and he symbolized that very well.
My greatest fear is that he won’t be remembered in 500 years and rather than being a Christopher Columbus who I imagine every school kid learns about he will more akin to the Arctic and Antarctic explorers who’s remarkable expeditions are relegated to special for the National Geography or Discovery channel.
If we do have colonies and Mars and the Moon, then I am sure Neil Armstrong and Apollo will be immortalized. If we don’t I fear for humanity.
You’ll note I’m complaining about the rhetoric declaring him to have the most “emblazoned with immortality” of any human being of all time. Moses? Alexander the Great? Einstein? For chrissakes. At least Columbus is in the right ballpark.
I have nothing bad to say about the man, and nothing but praise. People need to have perspective, though.
Basically, I agree with you. Well, I do think there were elements of Armstrong’s character that made him good at what he did and (who knows) possibly more successful in the clutch.
But reread what I said. His accomplishment is emblazoned with immortality. My point was that despite all the more remarkable persons or more important events in the grand scheme of things, in the minds of his fellow human beings, not much can compare with walking on the moon.
I think it should be on the TV thread because everyone was watching this when it occurred. That is something that is amazing in itself that the entire world was watching.
Oh. Well never mind then!
A true Titan has passed we are less .