1963 and 1964 were important years for me.
1963 and 1964 were important years for me. I was taking my first chemistry class from a rocket scientist in high school, learning all mathematics and science as fast as I could. My Dad was working at Cape Canaveral and meeting people like Wernher von Braun. We could see and hear and feel the rocket launches regularly. Kennedy made his Rice University speech on 12 Sep 1962, and I heard the announcement of his death in algebra class on 22 Nov 1963. Ed Sullivan was broadening our world, and he hosted the Beatles on 9 Feb 1964. We moved to Ohio before the end of the school year and I ended up having to attend two schools to cover what we did in Eau Gallie. I heard the word “cool” for the first time. There were more black kids than I had ever met. I learned how to read at 50,000 words a minute and make no mistakes. Grok did not filter into my life until the 70’s but it was published 1 Jun 1962.
The momentum and excitement was palpable. But those rockets were (and still are) noisy and grossly inefficient. I think that is what drove me to work on gravitational engineering and true atomic fuels. I set up my own analytic chemistry and electrochemistry lab, but did not start designing neural networks, robots and computer circuits until the next school year. I worked every odd job I could to make money for chemicals and to save for college. I aced my classes, I won prizes, I studied neurophysiology. The usual for everyone in those days. Every person I met was smarter than me in something, because we were all working together for something important.
I think the whole world, all 8.1 Billion humans, could work toward a life with dignity and purpose for all humans. And do heliospheric exploration, development and expansion deliberately, consciously, globally and collaboratively. We have enough spare untapped human potential on earth now to easily do 10 times what we do now. I spent the last 26 years studying how the Internet can help with those kinds of things by allowing all humans to see, interact with, hear and understand all knowledge.
Richard Collins, The Internet Foundation
The Beatles – I Want To Hold Your Hand – Performed Live On The Ed Sullivan Show 9 Feb 1964 – Audacity Spectrogram
