Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net> wrote:
> Dr. Seuss is brilliant. One of the truly great ones in our time... spike
My favorite story by Dr. Seuss was "On Beyond Zebra", which was a fantasy about letters beyond "Z". Each fantasy letter was used to spell the names of fantastic creatures in fantastic places. Although I knew even as a kid that it was pretend, it first gave me the idea that there might be hidden knowledge not generally known to the public. And as everyone else worked with their limited knowledge, the "insider" would know more. This was my first introduction to Transhumanist thought, back in the '60s! Through the discover of additional information, a person could gain better insights and gain more powers or abilities than the average human.
This was in first grade. I quickly learned that I could study ahead in my schoolbooks to know the material before the teacher taught us. In high-school during my Christian phase, I translated my own scriptures from the original texts to get a more accurate and direct idea of what the Bible really said. This lead me into other texts of the time that gave me more insights than the chosen texts. I improved my health through nutrition, by learning how food worked and transcending the average diet. In college, I studied Tae Kwan Do (a form of karate) to learn to use my body more effectively than just general fighting knowledge. (Maybe that's why I'm not that into guns.) When I learned computer programming, I quickly became a hacker, discovering undocumented commands and hidden capabilities of computers. When I worked as an editor on various newsletters, I learned to go beyond the official story and research the truth, or discover parts of the story that were left out of the official versions.
As you can see in my signature, most of these attributes are still with me today. I really think that "On Beyond Zebra" was the first book that changed my life.
-- Harvey Newstrom <mailto://newstrom@newstaffinc.com> <http://newstaffinc.com> Author, Consultant, Engineer, Legal Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.