[extropy-chat] ethical issues with children

[Benjamin Goertzel]

> I am 45 years senior to my son.  The world changed so much in those 45 years
> that most of the values with which I was raised are now wildly
> inappropriate.  For instance, I was told that the two most important things
> for a boy to learn are auto mechanics and self defense.

As I recall, the primary values my mother attempted to instill in me were:

-- be compassionate to others
-- warfare is bad [this was the Vietnam war era; I'm currently 40 yrs old]
-- creativity is good
-- dare to be different, and mistrust the consensus

These seem to have held up reasonably well over time.

As for working in odd jobs, which you mentioned: Yes, this was a
secondary value that my parents tried to instill in me, but that
didn't stick in my mind very well.  I argued with them that I'd be
better off spending my time accumulating knowledge and skills than
working at menial tasks for low pay.  However, I did work after school
delivering newspapers for a couple years until I saved $400 which (at
age 14) I used to purchase an Atari 400 computer.  Then I stopped
delivering newspapers and started programming ;-)  ...

-- Ben G