My weird connection to +David Deutsch Theoretical Physicist.
Back in the early 90s, I created a mailing list for the rights of kids/teens called Y-RIGHTS. I was a teenager, then early 20s while I ran it. I encouraged people of all ages to join, although most were College ppl, human rights activists and stuff like that.
Two of my members were David Deutsch and Sarah Fitz-Claridge. They had some very interesting ideas about parenting styles and how parents should treat their kids with respect.
Well, I welcomed almost any topic to the list but there was a problem: Sarah and David were talking in such COMPLICATED language – to me anyway – talking philosophy and such… that to me, it took away from the homey, welcoming character of the list. I like being understood and felt that any topic can be talked about in a way that most people who can read can understand.
I encouraged them to simplify the way they talked. Well, they thought I was being totalitarian and unfair.
So I suggested they start their OWN mailing list. I told them how to do so, that it’s not all that hard. And so, they did. They stayed members, simplified their writing style for my list but took what I called their “fancy talk” over to their list.
So, Sarah-Fitz Claridge and David Deustch founded Taking Children Seriously and split off from Y-RIGHTS. I joined their group too. They were happier that way and they started a kind of unparenting movement. This was back in ’94 [Wikipedia verifies, although they have part of it wrong; they had a paper ‘zine before the mailing list]
I talked with David Deutsch about the issues at the time. I knew he was in Theoretical Physics – well, Quantum Computing, such as it was at the time – and all that, but he wasn’t anybody different to me. I treat everybody the same.
Well, a few years later, he wrote “The Fabric of Reality” and quite justifiably so, became quite famous 🙂
So I’m proud of him and consider myself lucky to have connections with ALL the great minds of the people I consider my friends, which is you guys.
Thanks 😀
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