From: Stirling Westrup (sti@cam.org)
Date: Mon Sep 18 2000 - 22:04:38 MDT
David Lubkin wrote:
> Many are relatively young, and single. But many are not. Have you
> consciously chosen not to have kids? If so, why? Do you have kids, but
> have chosen not to mention it?
Being a dyed-in-the-wool geek, it took me FOREVER to work out this whole
male/female relationship thing. As a consequence I was almost 30 by the
time I lost my virginity. When I finally found myself in a relationship
with someone who I would want to procreate with (the lady who is now my
wife) there turned out to be complications. She has trouble conceiving
children, and refuses to use any sort of medical intervention. Her problem
in partly genetic, and she doesn't believe that genetic sterility is a
trait that should be passed on. I've tried to convince her that it soon
won't be a problem to correct genetic problems, but she would rather wait
until after there are proven genetic modification techniques before going
that route. Finally, she is some 15 years older than me and so menopause
is looming on the horizon for her. Its beginning to look like we won't
have kids unless we end up with both genetic modification AND age-
regression technology in our lifetimes. Its a real shame, since both of
use would love to have kids.
> Those of you with life-mates: how do they feel about your extropian
> interests? Do they share them? Tolerate them? Did they share any of
> these interests prior to the start of your relationship, or did you convert
> them? (Or, did they convert you?)
My wife was borderline extropian when I met her, and she has become
steadily moreso with time. She is now hoping that much of the promise of
nanotechnology is realized within her lifetime. This is not so unlikely,
since she comes of longlived stock, and her grandmother (who she strongly
resembles) was lively, intelligent and active up to about the age of 105.
On the other hand, she has been far more interested in controlled diet and
careful monitoring of food and chemical effects on the body, and has
convinced me to change many of my eating habits to more healthy ones.
> And for everyone: Do you try to pass the memes on to your friends and
> colleagues? How successful have you been? Who seems the most/least
> receptive? What approaches worked?
Most of the folks that I have as friends and colleagues are the sorts that
already had the memes for extropianism when I met them. We differ greatly
in our views on time scales and other factors governing the singularity,
but few of my friends think its an outlandish idea.
--
Stirling Westrup | Use of the Internet by this poster
sti@cam.org | is not to be construed as a tacit
| endorsement of Western Technological
| Civilization or its appurtenances.
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