[ExI] What would you do if you won the billion dollar plus MegaMillions Lottery, and are lotteries a bad thing?

Tue Oct 23 16:37:50 UTC 2018

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2018 8:48 AM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] What would you do if you won the billion dollar plus MegaMillions Lottery, and are lotteries a bad thing?

>>…BillW talks about giving it away, which is aimed at self-actualization, which tells me he is already good in the comfort and safety part of the ladder.

spike

>…Right - a few years ago when I was single I bought all the stuff I ever wanted - camera, stereo, PC, cooking gear, yard machines, plasma TV, and of course it was good that I never wanted a mansion, a yacht, etc. Now my main wants are books and I have enough money for those…

Ja.  The internet changed everything.  It really did.  Consider a lotta people in their young to mid working years, dreaming of retiring and (what’s the classic things they dream of) going on a sea voyage.  Or going on the road in a motorhome, two classic busy-person dreams, ja?

OK.  So.  What’s the first thing they discover?  Go on a sea voyage, great food, lotsa bods hanging out by the pool, fun fun it is.  For the first day or two.  After that… boooooorrrrinnnnng… because there is no internet connection out there at sea.  And even if there was, does it make a lick of sense to pay all that money to eat all that fine food and ogle the pool bods, then hole up in your cabin and surf the net?  Why not just stay home if you’re going to do that?  Go to a local upscale restaurant which is just as good, ogle the bods online, which is better.

Go on the road?  Hmmm, ok so you get to see the country.  Sure, pardon me while I nap.  You can get on Google Maps and cruise wherever you want and not have the risk of some drunken yahoo slamming into your shiny new motorhome as you ride those country roads.

Books you vant?  You vant zee books?  Vee hef zee books.  All the books you have time to read, right there in front of you right now.  They don’t even cost much, or if your eyes are tired, just get online and listen to Ted Talks, oh what a day.  What a time to be alive!

>…You could not talk to her on the phone for long because she was deathly afraid of the telephone bill, even if I was paying.

This is a big problem for people doing family history.  The people I really need to talk to are almost all over 80.  They have so much cool knowledge, but they generally don’t have or don’t use computers, and it is often such a struggle to get them to talk on the phone.  They treat it like a hot potato.  Costs money dontcha know. 

If you want to go visit in person, they love it: they will bal bla and yakkity yak your leg off all day, like there is no tomorrow.  But you call on the phone, short choppy sentences, gotta keep that phone bill down.  You can’t even convince them that your phone doesn’t charge by the minute, because theirs does which is why they seldom call out.  

I have one treasure chest of family history knowledge, age 88, whose phone still has the old rotary dial.  Their “long distance” calls still do cost money.  Their local phone company still supports the old ways.  West Virginia.  Mountain mama.  Don’t take me home, not there, please.  There is no convincing some of these old ones that most phones are not connected to the wall by a wire and don’t charge by the minute.  She has no computer, wouldn’t know what to do with one if she had it.

Advice to the young ones among us: if you eeeeever think you might eeever ever take an interest in your family history, get on it now.  The old ones are passing away.  They know stuff.  Talk to them.  Call em, talk, listen, write down what they tell you.  If you are not interested now, or are busy, call, talk, listen, write it down, file it away where you can find it 30 yrs from now.  I did.  The stuff I found out in my 20s is priceless and irreplaceable.

spike

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