Dear NNS,

I was born in Syracuse, NY, USA. I am an only child and wish I weren’t. When I got married I wanted to have more than one child, and my wife agreed. My older son, William, is a professor of Anthropology at William and Mary. The younger, Seth, heads a group of biochemists in Oklahoma. My daughter worked with the Wilmington, Delaware school system as a school librarian and has recently retired. If you live long enough your children become old people.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688078516/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1

The book above is about six people who are quite bright but chose to live undemanding lives. My daughter is the one given the name, Maxine, in the book. I am divorced from my first wife who is now dead. It was not a happy marriage primarily due to my failings. I am very happily remarried.

Each of my children has two children, all unmarried. William’s daughter, Diana, is in his thirties and has told me she is not going to have children unless possibly by adoption. Melanie, her sister, works for an ad agency in Brazil. She is the only descendant not in the US.

Seth’s daughter, Nina, is the medical student. Her younger brother, Adam, is an aspiring comedian. Rebecca’s daughter and her son are both at university.

William and Seth visited me in Australia in March.

In 1980 I went to a conference in Cambridge, UK. There I met my wife who was living in Norway. She came to the US for me. When I retired in 1987 she wanted to go home to Australia where she was born and grew up. Since she came to the US for me I came to Australia for her. I didn’t expect to live much longer and am amazed to be here at 93 with no major health problems.

May you last to my age and beyond and have descendants. My contemporaries are dead, but I have family.

You asked about family, but I want to know now you got to be who you are with your views on life.

Are Snuff movies pornography?

To Is Mise.

Had to look up what snuff movies are. Glad I didn't see any examples from the Google search. Horrible stuff. Porn that murders someone? Horrible stuff.

To David f.

Thanks for sharing about your family. I hoped to find something to relate to with you. Family is the backbone of life. When nothing else goes right, they are still the safety net.

I have two older brothers whom I've always looked up to (even today). One brother is a musician and artist. Now owns his own framing shop. He's sociable person and seems to get along with anyone. The other brother is a cook and has been for much of his life. His philosophy and looking at life fit with much of my own philosophical questions throughout life. Being in the shadow of these two men has been my privilege. Knowing them shaped who I am a lot by just looking up to what they've done, what they've overcome, and who they are.

How I got to be who I am starts out with a head injury at two years old. Lucky to be alive and possibly the first experience to be a foundation in believing in God. Though I don't remember it. The end results are that my speed is slower then everyone else, and my vision is blind on the left side in both eyes (peripheral vision). Long term this means my parents helped me get extra time and help in school. After school, it means my best doesn't cut it. Only recently has that conclusion been chipping away.

A few take aways from this is an appreciation of the generosity and kindness of those who show kindness (as well as the importance for that quality to have). A lot of time philosophizing, trying to make sense of the world. And a nagging feeling of being broken. Eventually I found out that I am not more broken then everyone else, but that everyone has their struggles, their embarrassments, their failures, and some of the common issues in human nature and behavior. It's not just me that's broken, but a lot of the world is broken by how it treats itself, how it reacts to how it's treated, and the various abuses.

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My faith starts out as faith in God before it comes to religion. He's looked out for me. Responded to some prayers. And showed His love. I know God exists. This isn't theory, or being manipulated to believe, it's knowledge from experience. As a teen I decided to look into if God spoke through the religions, and if so to know which religions came from God. My mom is Christian, my dad is Baha'i. Faith in God came before faith or understanding in religion. I can go into more detail of this if you want, but my conclusion is that the texts and prophets in The Old Testament are from God, as is Jesus and the texts of the new Testament.

The three things in my life that most shaped it I would say is finding God, having supportive parents, and finding my wife. Each of these three parts of my life has rescued me from one time of depression or another. With my wife, she healed my heart and gave me hope after I'd lost hope in much of everything else. (She healed a bad break down and depression that intensified the nagging feeling of being broken that I grew up with). How I got to be who I am today is impacted because of those who have helped rescue me from my inner struggles.

This might not explain my views in detail. But it is an overview of how I've come to be who I am, as well as a foundation my views are built on. For more information I'd need some direction for what you'd like to know about.

As for you, my next question would be about your careers in life, your studies (college or otherwise), and any significant hobbies you had. Regardless of our differences in views I hoped to find something to relate to with you. With that in mind thanks again for telling about your family.

Dear NNS,

I very much appreciated you telling me about yourself. The sad fact is that we may have difficulty finding common ground to relate to each other besides agreeing on the importance of family and the joy of having a loving wife.

I have rejected religion and think doubt is preferable to faith. I am quite interested in religion and read much about it. I also read much about philosophy and have given lectures on philosophy in Prins Willem Alexander Village where I live

https://www.agedcareguide.com.au/prins-willem-alexander-village

I have been a technical person. My majors in university were physics and mathematics. Not only is mathematics a subject of study, but it is a hobby. I keep learning, reading and thinking about it. I read a lot. The last six books I read are:

The Birth of the West, Paul Collins
Joseph Anton, Salman Rushdie
Philosophy in 50 Milestone Moments, Dan Smith
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
Brick Lane, Monica Ali
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontё
I was involved in computers at an early stage and worked on UNIVAC, the first commercially available computer.

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-history-of-the-univac-computer-1992590

Among other things I was involved in the election predictions of 1952 described in the last paragraph of the UNIVAC story. I have been a soldier, a rocket engineer, a systems analyst and a university lecturer in computer science.

In the late 1950s I got a telephone call. I was offered a job at triple my then salary. It was to work on the Polaris Missile. My background qualified me for the job, but I refused it as it was repugnant to me.

https://www.britannica.com/technology/Polaris-missile

I think refusing that job offer hurt my employment prospects. The man who offered me the job was very angry at my refusal and threatened me. I think he succeeded in affecting my other employment prospects, and my income was affected as a result.

Possibly it was one of the things that caused my divorce. I don’t regret refusing to work on a device that could cause the death of millions as I just couldn’t in good conscience do it.

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