I would work on the early grades for all students, especially gifted ones. The epistemological stance you wind up with gets set fairly early -- not in stone but also hard to work with -- and the early grades are where we should be putting our resources and efforts.
So many of the questions point up the problems with the format and media for an AMA. So many of the best questions are out of the scope ...
But, let's just pick one biggie here: how about taking on "systems" as a lingua franca and set of perspectives for thinking about: our universe, our world, our cultures and social systems, our technologies, and the systems that we ourselves are?
This would be one very good thing to get 21st century children started on ...
"Big History is an emerging academic discipline which examines history from the Big Bang to the present. It examines long time frames using a multidisciplinary approach based on combining numerous disciplines from science and the humanities,[1][2][3][4][5] and explores human existence in the context of this bigger picture.[6] It integrates studies of the cosmos, Earth, life, and humanity using empirical evidence to explore cause-and-effect relations..."
I'm rather a fan, though I've only explored it quite briefly.
If you're not familiar with the Santa Fe Institute and its work, I suspect you'll find it fascinating. The general rhubric is "complexity science", applied across a large number of fields. Geoffrey West and Sander van der Leuuw are two other fellows. Founders included Murray Gell-Mann and Kenneth Arrow.
"SFI's original mission was to disseminate the notion of a new interdisciplinary research area called complexity theory or simply complex systems. This new effort was intended to provide an alternative to the increasing specialization the founders observed in science by focusing on synthesis across disciplines.[4] As the idea of interdisciplinary science increased in popularity, a number of independent institutes and departments emerged whose focus emphasized similar goals."
And, since many of your responses point at challenges to the AMA (or HN) format, what would your preference be? Is there an existing platform or model that fits, or is there a set of requirements that
On friends winding up at SFI: that's good to hear multiple ways -- for your friends, your familiarity, and yet another endorsement of the Institute.
Thinking in Systems (and not just Meadows' book) is something I'd also like to see developed more fully. Big History is more than that, but it's also one logical development -- systems pervasive throughout the academic curriculum. I think that's a powerful concept.
There's also the possiblity that many people don't and cannot get systems thinking. Another author I've been reading, William Ophuls (most especially Plato's Revenge) discusses this in the context of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, and comes to sobering conclusions regarding facing social challenges based on typical population cognitive foundations. Basing your Solution to the World's Problems on "all the children are above average" is bound to fail.
What role do people like Terry A. Davis (and his TempleOS) serve in imaging what's possible in computing? I'm thinking of Jaron Lanier's idea of society getting "locked in" after certain technical decisions become seemingly irreversible (like the MIDI standard).
What do you think about a "digital Sabbath," [1] specifically in the context of touchstones like:
Engelbart's Augmenting Human Intellect [2]
Edge's annual question, How is the Internet Changing the Way you Think? [3]
Carr's Is Google Making Us Stupid? [4]
...and other common criticisms of "information overload"
Candles, wine and bread aren't technologies? Hard to take this seriously. (And I like to play music, and both music and musical instruments are technology, etc.)
A better issue is not getting sucked into "legal drugs" that have no nutritional value.
"We are already stupid" -- this is why things could be much much better but aren't. We have to start with ourselves, and a positive way to do this is to ask "what can real education really do to help humanity?"
Jaron Lanier mentioned you as part of the, "humanistic thread within computing." I understood him to mean folks who have a much broader appreciation of human experience than the average technologist.
Who are "humanistic technologists" you admire? Critics, artists, experimenters, even trolls... Which especially creative technologists inspire you?
I imagine people like Jonathan Harris, Ze Frank, Jaron Lanier, Ben Huh, danah boyd, Sherry Turkle, Douglas Engelbart, Douglas Rushkoff, etc....
