The greatest real accomplishments I can think of were.. maybe..

The printing press, the computer, TV and so forth.. and they all built off of eachothers work. Same with most functions we have today on our smartphones. The operating systems were made from Linux, the

It's really not the people that matter, it's the ideas. Ideas are transferred from generation to generation while people come and go. Attitudes, too. This cynical know it all attitude has been around forever

Really is, if you think of it.

What did anyone ever accomplish that was much more than living?

...doing anything that required conscious effort

if you deem "living" as the greatest achievement one could ever strive for, then you must be a very very pathetic man with nothing in life.

the only person that could truly consider "life" as an achievement is a parent.

Living requires conscious effort for many people.

Me included.

then it's a burden, not an achievement.

Living with a burden is an achievement.... -_-

Chemotherapy isn't easy, I'll tell you as much.

By the way, I consider getting a girlfriend, working out and so forth parts of "living".. Not exactly goals, are they now?

A goal would be something like building a spaceship, building an underground laboratory, building a house, drawing a beautiful painting. Something that requires creative effort. Any monkey is capable of humping females and strutting around like he's the king even though he's at risk for meteors, viruses and all sorts of things he's completely oblivious and completely unprotected from.