[extropy-chat] Re: Home-schooling

[David Lubkin]

I asked:

 > How is it that so few of us have kids? Or, if indeed many do,
 > why do we rarely discuss parenting on-list?

Emlyn answered:

>Often we don't discuss kids, I think, because it's a touchy  topic. Some 
>here believe that extropes shouldn't really have children.

And Spike disagreed:

>Oh I do disagree Emlyn, muchly.  I think nearly everyone
>here thinks that extropes *should* have children, lots of em,
>fill the earth with their descendants.  The real problem is
>just the opposite: it's primarily the entropes producing the
>larvae in our all-too-slowly changing world.

Well, as you may recall, my largely extropian father had thirteen kids, 
half of whom have gone into science or engineering, including most of the 
girls. So he did his bit for the good of the cause.

I think that discussing children is extraordinarily important and should 
not just be an occasional topic. Children begin life as rational 
omniglot-wannabes -- they have an intense desire to know, do, and be 
everything immediately. It seems like our prospects for accomplishing 
everything we here care about are highly sensitive to what fraction of 
those children are stultified along the way to adulthood.

If we're talking about how extropians can influence the course of the next 
few decades and what we hope they will lead to, there's very little that we 
can do that's more important than increasing that fraction. We need a new 
generation of creative thinkers, researchers, and inventors. We need a 
smart, competent, rational, BS-detecting, self-reliant, technophilic 
electorate.


-- David Lubkin.