Why is Python 3.0 important?

I had a friend ask me why Python 3.0 is so important. I replied that I was most excited about the new string and byte objects, and the reorganized standard library. Float division by default will be nice too. However, I think Python 3.0's importance is bigger than the immediate pain points it addresses, possibly much bigger.

Does anyone remember in Dallas a couple years ago when Robert Lefkowitz gave the keynote? I have to confess that I listened from the hall, but the idea I remember is that we are developing a canon of software just as we have a canon of world literature. He asked: what programs should be part of the canon?

Now I'm going to be grand. Everyone have their grain of salt? Python 3.0 is not a release for today, it's a release for the ages. Python will now be known as one of the best pieces of software in world history. Python 2 is great; Python 3 is masterful.

On the same day as Python 3.0 was released, there was a minor splash that Perl is dying—still. Perhaps Python is to William Shakespeare as Perl is to John Fletcher. Who?

[Fletcher] was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivaled Shakespeare's.

It's interesting that while Shakespeare's authorship of his plays is pretty well established, Guido clearly shares the spotlight with a whole community. It's also interesting how a well-written program functions as the basis for systems much more directly than a well-written corpus of plays (I think that's the sort of thing Lefkowitz went on to talk about). It's also the case that the world changes much faster now than in Shakespeare's day. How long before Python starts to feel more like Euripides than Shakespeare?