Measuring Men

When I was very young, 12 or so, I thought you could judge people only by the descendants they left behind.

In a way, that has a certain validity. I mean, if you don’t have children, your genetics aren’t going to show up in future humanity.

It took me years to realize that people like Shakespeare and Heinlein had left countless non-genetic descendants. For Shakespeare, arguably, most of western civ. For Heinlein, only the future will tell, but I’m sort of hoping he’ll be the father of many ne...