I've been spending a lot of time thinking about viewing human existence, at its most fundamental level, as a struggle for permanence.
Immortality itself is essentially impossible, and primarily a fool's dream. But information, passed down from one impermanent vessel to the next, can theoretically achieve permanence.
Therefore, an individual who makes contributions significant enough to become famous and have their story or work documented and passed down for future generations have achieved a level of immortality, or at least permanence.
The ultimate goal would be to achieve popular fame from a historical perspective, so that even thousands of years from your death, your name, or your work, is a household name. Think Alexander the Great.
This of course leads to the moral problem of fame v. infamy, and how to deal with Herostratus copy-cats. Is fame, achieved through immoral means, reprehensible?
Anyways, my point in asking is, is there any documented philosophers who have examined this approach? If not, I'd love to write about it myself, and if there is, I'd quite like to read their work.