Viewpoint of Lester Donald Earnest
2017.08.09
A bad boy who grew up to be a badass but had fun
When reading or
hearing stories about history, current events, or future expectations there are
few things that can be viewed as absolute truths since these stories inevitably
reflect the viewpoint of the author, which in turn depends on that person's
genetic and cultural inheritances as well as life experiences. Given that I
have written or told lots of stories, I feel obligated to reveal at least part
of my viewpoint, which admittedly has shifted over time. Note that this is an
introspective description and that my colleagues likely have different
assessments of my views based on their viewpoints. Below is perhaps more than
you want to know.
I confess that after growing up in San
Diego, California, as a bad boy, I somehow got into Caltech on a scholarship
and was inspired by my freshman chemistry teacher, Linus Pauling, to choose
chemistry as my major. However, I then flunked out and stumbled into the field
of digital computing in 1949, then flunked out again but managed to graduate
and ended up spending a dozen years working in the corrupt Military-Industrial-Congressional
Complex, which was devoted to stealing money from American taxpayers and giving
it to people on Wall Street, a scam that is still going strong today.
In 1965, I escaped from that mess by going
to Stanford University where I designed, set up, named and managed the Stanford
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory,
which became a very successful research facility even though its AI name was
bogus, as I knew. I then completed my education by becoming founding president
of a successful Silicon Valley bootstrap startup (Imagen), then returned to
Stanford as Associate Chair of the Computer Science Department and eventually
retired in 1988 because of a disability.
In 1999 I
insisted on treatment and recovered, then devoted myself to world travel, bicycle
racing, world reform, and troublemaking. At age 86, with 15 descendants including
six great grandchildren so far, I am still a cyclist, now on a recumbent trike,
and have so far ridden a distance equivalent to about 5.5. times around the
world at the equator without having been touched by a motor vehicle so far.
Like everyone, I have a confirmation bias
in that I embrace new information that supports my views and try to ignore that
which conflicts. I also live in a fantasy world that is mostly inherited from
ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors but that has been modified a bit by more
recent farming ancestors and by my personal education and life experiences. My
viewpoint may be seen as oddball because I am a bit Asperger-ish and live pragmatically closer to the real world than most
people.
Pragmatism Versus Fantasies. I find old paintings interesting
because they provide information about the past but, while many people enjoy
seeing new artwork, I have no interest in it because it depicts fantasies. I believe
that instead of painting portraits or landscapes we should simply photograph
reality. Of course, paintings and drawings do have a use in planning new
structures or inventions.
Many
people like to see beautiful architecture but I see only whether it functions
well. Many people like to see flowers and formal gardens, but while I enjoy
being in natural settings, flowers are of negligible interest to me. I also see
no point in jewelry and wear none.
In a similar vein, many people like to
read or see fictional stories, but I generally prefer non-fictional
documentaries. I do enjoy some science fiction and other stories that depict
close-to-reality events with only minor twists such as sexy happenings.
Politics. I was raised as a Republican and stuck
with it until after I voted for Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy, then
realized what I had done. I am now a radical progressive and a registered
Democrat.
Religion plays an important part in many
people’s lives and it influenced mine. I was born and raised in San Diego,
California, growing up as a bicycling beach boy who wore only maroon swimming trunks
outside of school, summer and winter. My dad made it a point to drive my little
sister and me to and from Sunday School even though the protestant church was
just three blocks from our home. However, I noticed that our parents seldom
went to church themselves.
Later, while living as an adolescent in
Louisville, Kentucky, I voluntarily attended Sunday School after noticing lots
of cute girls there. After a while they did a survey to find out who had not
yet been baptized and then pulled a large water tank out from under the altar
and dunked us one at a time. I noticed that several girls were wearing white
blouses that became translucent when wet, with interesting visual effects. Thus,
I view religion as having social benefits.
I later figured out that all religions are
fantasies and became a Humanist, which is closer to reality. It is interesting that
people keep inventing new god-like omnipotent beings today, called superheroes.
I enjoy a lot of music, especially
classical, but am totally perplexed by the fact that many people enjoy reading
or seeing murder mysteries, horror stories, and gory warfare, all of which I
find repugnant.
Sexual
orientation. I am
evidently heterosexual, having gotten seriously interested in girls by age 10,
though I couldn't figure out how their minds worked and am still working on
that.
My mother supplied me with sex education
books and I later learned that she played a central role in starting sex
education in the San Diego City Schools. She even let me read a fat book of
hers titled Psychopathia Sexualis that
contained some far-out stuff but whenever it got really interesting the text
switched from English to Latin, so I missed the best parts. I was tempted to
learn Latin but never got around to it.
In my senior year of high school I was surprised to have one hour of our Physical
Education classes devoted to sex education, since it seemed to me to be about a
decade late. Our instructor went over a bunch of stuff that I already knew and
then brought up arguments against premarital sex and started listing them on
the blackboard. Being a smart-ass I put up my hand and said
“Wouldn't it be fairer to also list arguments in favor of premarital sex?”
Pretending to be unbiased, he agreed, so I started giving him some. However,
when my list got longer than his, he changed his mind and erased everything.
While that was going on I was still a
virgin. In fact, I never got around to kissing a girl until my second year in
college, one week before my 19th birthday. Happily, on my birthday I made
substantial progress with a different girl.
Life and death. I
have lived a good life and, having passed the age by which most people are
dead, I accept the fact that this will happen to me sooner or later. Unlike many
people, I do not expect to have an afterlife or reincarnation, which I view as
nifty marketing tools used by organized religions to play on human fantasies.
I have had twelve brushes with death so
far, which means I am now on my thirteenth life and it remains to be seen how
many more it will take to get me. Given that cats are supposedly entitled to
nine lives, I am writing an article titled How
I got Four Up on Cats.
Mental
Defects
I apparently was
born with one mental defect and have acquired two more.
Congenital
Prosopagnosia. I have trouble recognizing people and often
walk by some I know without noticing them. As a result, people often say “Hi,
Les!” and I respond by saying “Hi!” while I try to figure out who they are. I
am generally able to do that after a bit of conversation but I sometimes can’t
figure out how they know me.
Acrophobia. I acquired a fear of heights at around age 3 when
I managed to take a hike by myself in a mountainous area and found a giant
granite boulder about the size of a one car garage with a small stream flowing
over it. When I stepped in the stream, which was slippery, I went over the edge
and landed on rocks about three meters below, which left me somewhat damaged
physically and permanently damaged mentally. Thereafter I have been unable to
get near the edge of a cliff and it even freaks me out when I see others do it,
especially my kids.
Word Selection Anomia, My inability to recall proper nouns, such as
names of people and places, started around 1985 when I was put into a mental
fog and depression by sleep apnea that was misdiagnosed by my doctor and was
left in that state for 14 years. Even though I eventually got that fixed, the
anomia has continued to get worse. There is no way around this problem if I am
talking but if I am writing I can usually find the names by searching the web,
my online databases, or old stories that I have written.
In Summary, I live in a less fantastic world than
most people, which makes me an oddball.