Past Influences and Future Hopes

**paulbee** · 07-25-2010, 02:54 PM

I was born Nov. 15 1958. My Dad was a Civil Enginer, mom was a Hairdress (beautician), and I have 6 siblings.

The first TV we had to my recollection was a 12 inch Black and white Phillips set. In those days, my dad used to go to work with his Slide-Rule in hand. I remember he drove some british car that had a hand crank starter. Later My Dad bought a HUGE (in my eyes) Ford Galaxie (1961, can't remember for sure) with Tail Fins.

EDIT: I may have found the car above. A 1961 model.

My mom used a Steam Iron to press our clothes. The thing was a literal piece of Iron that had a compartment which you popped open and literally dropped in pieces of hot coal to get it going.

Our first Radio was a huge Grundig console, and inside it were vacuum tubes (they look like light bulbs. We used to sit and listen to the BBC and VOA. The most memorable news I heard on that thing were "Tranquility base, the eagle has landed", "That's one small step for man, One giant leap for mankind". I also recall news about JFK assassination, and the Nigerian Civil War.

Watching TV, we saw shows like, The Lone Ranger, Sisco Kid, Bonanza, Disney's Wonderful World of Color, Tarzan, Cheyenne, Silent Service, Robin Hood, Candid Camera, Highway Patrol, Pop Eye, Gumby, The Tall Man, Rawhide, and most significantly to me...StartTrek and Astro Boy. Mr. Spock was my hero.

Growing up in the Era of StarTrek, Astro Boy, and the Moon Landing was most wonderful, magical, and mystical. I saw Color TV, Calculators, Jet Planes, transistor radios, and many great scientific advances happen. Later on I even witnessed the development of computers, and now the smart phone too.

It is difficult to fully explain how much these developments influenced me life. However thinking more deeply, I think I was just a weird kid. Most adults thought I was extremely precocious, and inquisitive. The also accused me of "Proving Logic" an annoying trait I never got over I'm afraid.

Today I have great hopes for the future of Mankind. Our greatest foe is and has always been militant extremism and war. I also count violent oppression of any sort, racism, and ethnic superiority complexes as forces that retard mankind's future.

I am all for religious (and political) freedom so long as extreme punishments, forcible conversions, harassment of dissenters, and use of violence as a tool is prohibited. I don't mind if you think I'll go to hell, so long as you don't attempt to send me there . I support your freedom to not like me. Just don't do anything that would actually harm me.

I think there should be a God, if there isn't one, because the Universe is pointless otherwise. I don't know what form God should take, so long as he ensures that all the achievements, loves, hopes and dreams of Sentient beings throughout the Universe are not merely frenetic activity that will vanish completely when their respective civilizations vanish, or when the Universe itself vanishes. If everything vanishes eventually, then the whole of existence would have been a pointless infinitesimally brief coincidence of DNA chemistry.

To my eyes, the future is bright provided we can find abundant energy at ridiculously cheap rates. If we have huge amounts of cheap and safe energy, we'll eventually develop technology that will provide for all our needs such as food, clothing, health, etc.

Anyhow, I'd like to here some of your interesting childhood experiences, events that influenced how you grew up, and what your hopes and dreams for the future are. I'd like this thread to be a luxuriously slow developing, long term exchange.

None of us is perfect, or omniscient, so let's be tolerant. If you have nothing to contribute, just read and enjoy, or ask questions.

Hope to talk to you all.

LOL, found this image, it looks almost exactly as my memories picture it. This may have been the model we had. It's not the same since ours lacked the Reel to Reel Tape player.

**kuroihikari** · 07-25-2010, 03:38 PM

You know what's sad? I was born in the early 80's and had almost the exact same set of firsts as you do (minus the car and the radio).

**paulbee** · 07-25-2010, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by kuroihikari

You know what's sad? I was born in the early 80's and had almost the exact same set of firsts as you do (minus the car and the radio).

Kuro,

I've been reading your posts for a long time. When you have some time, why don't you tell us some of your background too.

**kuroihikari** · 07-25-2010, 04:23 PM

I'm still young, so there's nothing much about me

. I was born to a very strict (capital punishment-strict) Air Force dad and a Catholic zealot mom during the early 1980's (The Marcos twilight years), both of whom I value as much as my life. I myself was raised mostly on a scientific and mathematical academic background for my secondary and college years, studying the best public schools in the country. So, you can say I'm a product of the government through-and-through.

That means that I hate any sort of subversion towards any rule of law, regardless of law, unless the law is so bad that it does not leave room for a change towards itself. You can say I'm a rightist in that regard. However, my public school background has also bought me into contact with many leftists, including radical ones, and thus I have also developed a sense of tolerance and respect towards anti-governmental behavior.

On other matters, I'm a sponge for information, and I'm not sure if the easy access to it that the Internet grants is a good thing or bad thing for me. It gives me exactly what I want, but it also grants me the satisfaction I should really be getting from somewhere else.

On the future, I generally don't want to think about it. I'm a closet megalomaniac, and before I got sick I'd always believed that I'd create the future myself, and not just be a statistic. With the possibility of that being eliminated, the only thing I'm really looking forward to seeing in my lifetime is mankind finally finding some way to fold space and time with as little energy as possible. Culture and conflict go hand-in-hand, so I think mankind must have a goal out there in the stars to strive for so that we can go together hand-in-hand.

**damnz** · 07-25-2010, 05:22 PM

(I'm catalan, so I lack any deep knowledge of technical words when it comes to politics, religion and philosophy, excuse me for that)

This is indeed one of the most interesting threads I've seen around lately, so here's my contribution.

I was born thanks to my parents. My father has dedicated his life to medicine and surgery and my mother to education and also business, so I've been surrounded by science and proven knowledge ever since I was born. They're atheists, and so I am (although I find myself agreeing a lot with what taoism teaches every now and then). They're 100% against any kind of violence or weapons and stuff that can be used to harm others, so they never bought me a water gun. This way I grew up as a little man who hates anything that gets involved in war, conflicts and any kind of harm towards other individuals of our own species; and anything that represents that.

I pretty much ended up living my teen years fully into computers and technology, which was, along with literature, comics and music, my way to evade myself and escape from this current life and world I strongly disagree with. I studied in public schools and now I'm studying Aeronautics Engineering in a semi-public university. In the future, when I'm done with studies and into the working club, I'll try to give my best to solve the energy problem we have and put an end to the violent use of technology.

I don't believe in the current politics we have here (Spain) and many other places in the world, but I'm for all a democratic person. I don't believe in kings nor kingdoms. I don't believe in God, but I fully respect any other religious person and hope they respect me. I believe humans are to be a hundred percent free as long as that freedom does not interfere with another human's freedom. I'm also against hurting any kind of living animal if no one is going to eat that meat (or being protected).

When I turned eighteen (an adult here), I was immediately 100% responsible of my actions, so I've been taking my mind and body to the limit in every possible way ever since (traveling, climbing, hiking, bungee jumping, parachuting, flying, studying, legal and illegal drugs, sex, playing music, etc.). I stopped caring about most of the things I used to, and now I'm as careless as I decided to. I also did my best to be an understanding and helping person, which I think I am now.

I don't think war will ever end or that people will stop harming others just so that they can be more, have more or feel more.

I think we being here is all about luck. I spend lots and lots of hours asking myself and thinking about humans, the "where do we come from and where do we go" and many questions like that. I actually enjoy myself doing that. Found no other answer than "luck" to those questions. There is no meaning behind anything when it comes to life and Universe.

Basically, nowadays, priority number one in my life is taking my whole body to the limit and travel to every part of this planet we somehow ended up in, as long as I'm healthy and I don't cause any problem to anyone else; and go on with my days.

("Post Quick Reply", lol)

**paulbee** · 07-25-2010, 06:36 PM

For the record I have responded via PM to Kuro and Damnz. Still wanna hear from others too on your Past Influences and Future Hopes

**Aribelle** · 07-25-2010, 08:29 PM

Ah damn, I was almost done and then I got logged out ><

Childhood:
Born in late 80s, one sibling, grew up in a suburb, loved all the 90s fads (boy bands, etc...), went to public school through 8th grade, raised Catholic

I went to a private Catholic high school in San Francisco and, ironically, this was when I really started questioning the Catholic religion. It wasn't so much I disliked it as I found it really hard to believe. I have no problems with Catholic teachings, for the most part, although I suppose I have a very liberal interpretation of them. Living in such a liberal city yet going to a religious school was interesting because I had a lot of people encouraging me to be religious but at the same time discover what religion means for me personally, and this led me to be more agnostic/spiritual than anything.

In high school I also adopted a few social causes. I was lucky to go to Mexico with some classmates and learn about some of the issues with immigration as well as volunteer for two summers at a camp for underprivileged kids. These experiences gave me a lot of compassion, empathy, tolerance, and patience - all things that are useful to me now as a nursing student.

Currently I study nursing at a private Catholic university in San Francisco, which is very demanding and doesn't leave me a lot of time to do the things I could in high school, and thus I'm kind of putting religion etc on hold until I graduate and get a job.

One thing I've noticed, though, is that there's a lot wrong with the way student activists (believe me, the Bay Area has a lot of them) try to initiate change. I see a lot of preaching but not a lot of tolerance for other opinions. I also see a lot of confrontational tactics; for example, making people feel guilty for buying bottled water and telling them they are destroying the earth. This just puts people on the defensive. Personally, I think it would be more effective to TEACH - tell people how much money they'll save by investing in a water filter and a reusable bottle. From my own experiences, coming at people with a willingness to listen and a non-judgemental stance works better when you need to get a point across.

Another thing is that a lot of times people get on their soap boxes without actually knowing what they're talking about. If you are interested in a cause you need to get your hands dirty - do a beach cleanup or volunteer at a clinic or a soup kitchen - then you'll find out what you're really passionate about and you'll be personally invested in it and, more importantly, you'll give it a face. That makes so much of a difference.

The thing I like about nursing is that it forces you to look at the individual. I've done a lot of work at a county hospital, and I've treated homeless people, drug addicts, teenage mothers, even prisoners, and for the most part they are all very gracious for the care they receive. It's important to implement change on a large scale, but it's also extremely gratifying to just give one person a little bit of comfort during their time of crisis.

My hopes for the future, although idealistic, are that people get more hands on, less caught up with their own egos, and more in tune to what's going on in other paradigms.