SplendorQuest.com

This is me, writing two years ago, when the iPad was first announced:

The implication of a computer that can train its end-users how to use it is that teaching as a profession is dead. All teaching, at all levels.

Since then, I’ve been watching the disintermediation of education taking its course. In real life, nothing happens as quickly as we expect it to, looking forward, and everything seems to have happened with a blinding rapidity, when we look backward. We are in the midst of a mass exodus of the smartest children and adults away from traditional, political, dumbed-down, one-size-fits-all educationism.

With every passing day, there is new news of this revolution, which pretty much nobody but me sees in all its glory. The real news will come when all those unionized nincompoops in the National Education Association wake up and realize what is going on. By the time they commence to rioting in the streets, we may hear the last of the absurd claims about their hearts being in the right place, even though their minds quite clearly are not. Meanwhile, you and I can watch the drama play itself out while we await the fireworks:

• The big news, of course, is Apple’s (more…)

The American Spectator, at one time a serious magazine, has an amazingly bad argument against drug legalization up today. The actual purpose of the article is to slime Ron Paul, so it’s possible that the author does not actually believe the specious arguments he makes. In case he does, though, I’m going to take them apart. I think it’s vital for people to learn how poor are the arguments made in support of the positions they are asked to take. Your supposed “leaders” are mainly glib and lazy screw-ups. If you do not take first-hand responsibility for what goes into your mind, you are apt to be led to your slaughter.

Witness:

Every so often, alas, the subject of drug legalization reappears. This time it is back as one of many bad ideas from presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul and is cheered on by the usual fans, from libertarians to pot heads.

This is the Fallacy Ad Hominem for Dr. Paul with an extra Ad Hominem for the company he keeps. The entire article is peppered with insults and colored language, so I won’t highlight it again. It is worth noting that these kinds of verbal tricks are common when an advocate knows his (more…)

I swear, you just can’t make this stuff up. The Wall street Journal insists that American democracy works (it does?) because voters are no smarter than fish:

Why are democracies so vibrant even when composed of uninformed citizens? According to a new study led by the ecologist Iain Couzin at Princeton, this collective ignorance is an essential feature of democratic governments, not a bug. His research suggests that voters with weak political preferences help to prevent clusters of extremists from dominating the political process. Their apathy keeps us safe.

To show this, Dr. Couzin experimented on a rather unlikely set of subjects: fish. Many different species, such as schooling fish and flocking birds, survive by forming a consensus, making collective decisions without splintering apart. To do so, these creatures are constantly forced to conduct their own improvised elections.

The scientists trained a large group of golden shiners, a small freshwater fish used as bait, to associate the arrival of food with a blue target. They then trained a smaller group to associate food with a yellow target, a color naturally preferred by the fish. Not surprisingly, when all the trained golden shiners were put in one aquarium, most of them swam toward the yellow (more…)

Urf. Further proof that your genes made you do it:

In a series of experiments, researchers closely monitored physiological reactions and eye movements of study participants when shown combinations of both pleasant and unpleasant images. Conservatives reacted more strongly to, fixated more quickly on, and looked longer at the unpleasant images; liberals had stronger reactions to and looked longer at the pleasant images compared with conservatives.

To gauge participants’ physiological responses, they were shown a series of images on a screen. Electrodes measured subtle skin conductance changes, which indicated an emotional response. The cognitive data, meanwhile, was gathered by outfitting participants with eyetracking equipment that captured even the most subtle of eye movements while combinations of unpleasant and pleasant photos appeared on the screen.

While liberals’ gazes tended to fall upon the pleasant images, such as a beach ball or a bunny rabbit, conservatives clearly focused on the negative images — of an open wound, a crashed car or a dirty toilet, for example.

Consistent with the idea that conservatives seem to respond more to negative stimuli while liberals respond more to positive stimuli, conservatives also exhibited a stronger physiological response to images of Democratic politicians — presumed to be a negative to them — (more…)

As before, there are only three kinds of social science “news” stories. When the “news” deigns to inform you of your nature or your mental acumen, the breathless revelation will come in one of these forms:

1. We now know we know nothing!

2. Your good behavior is not to your credit, but at least your bad behavior is not your fault!

3. Dancing Bears are just as smart as you!

Pre-fab “news” form factor number two is, in its essence, a Ghost-in-the-Machine argument: Either your behavior is entirely controlled by your biology (hormones, brain chemistry, genes, defective genes, brain defects, drugs, pheromones, memes, et infinitely cetera), or your brain’s illusion of self-control is as real and as dispositive as a child playing the demo mode of a coin-op video game. Or both.

Today’s New York Times features an article that lays a big deuce on your belief in your own free will:

They’ll fail because they’ll eventually run out of willpower, which social scientists no longer regard as simply a metaphor. They’ve recently reported that willpower is a real form of mental energy, powered by glucose in the bloodstream, which is used up as you exert self-control.

The result is “ego depletion,” as this state of mental (more…)

I’ve touched on this before, but it’s worthwhile to be explicit:

There are three types of social science “news” stories:

1. We now know we know nothing! That is, scientists are so confused about everything, your illusions of intellectual confidence are simply further proof of your indiminishable ignorance. Here’s a great example of a proudly-profound befuddlement, an article to which I may return someday.

2. Your bad behavior is not your fault! Even worse: Your good behavior is totally accidental! I don’t have an example ready to hand, but I hardly need one. This “news” is reported just about every day.

3. Dancing Bears are just as smart as you! It’s all a matter of degree: If an ape can pound out poetry that is no worse than the drivel they publish in The New Yorker, then your pretense to knowledge and wisdom is simply a vanity.

Today’s news brings us a Dancing Bear story about dogs:

Dog lovers like to think it is their masterful voices that make their pets so keen to please.

In fact, it is more complex than that – with eye contact playing an important role alongside spoken commands.

Scientists have found the animals pick up not only the words we say, but our (more…)

[I wrote this for FreeTheAnimal.com, but I want to mirror it here, as well, since it’s so much a part of what SplendorQuest.com is for. –GSS]
 

Want to become a better, more-perfect version of yourself? Master something difficult in 2012.

I always love to read about the outrageously nefarious bad guys who are doing all the things we hate. Doesn’t matter who “we” are, since the bad guys afflicting every “we” are always blindingly brilliant, amazingly competent masterminds of evil.

I guess it’s useful to exaggerate your opposition, but here’s the thing:

Everyone I remember from school was a screw-up.

Start with a good solid two-thirds compliant drones, dutifully going through whatever motions seemed to be required. Maybe half of the rest were glib and lazy. Even the straight-A apple-polishers were just phoning it in, doing the minimum necessary to get the grade from the glib-and-lazy grown-up teaching the class.

Am I misrepresenting the world of education? Is there anything you can think of that you did in school that you’re truly proud of now. Away from athletics or the school play, was there anything in your academic life that you gave everything you had? Was there anyone else who did that?

Was there any class that you (more…)

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story

When I walked in, Murcheson from 4-B was holding a gun to the head of old Mr. Fournetelle, the landlord.

Then Murphy the ward heeler came in. He put his gun to Murcheson’s head.

Then Skiffington from the Chronicle strode in, suitably armed. He pointed his gun at Murphy.

Skiffington was followed by Morczyk, the spy. The reporter trembled visibly when Morczyk pressed the machine pistol to his temple.

But the spy was himself shaken by Morrison, the blackmailer. The gun was puny enough, by comparison to others in view. But it was enough to make Morczyk’s forehead bead with sweat.

When Bramley the mugger came in, I almost laughed out loud: Actions do have consequences…

“Hey!” said sweet old Mr. Fournetelle. “For what are we doing all this?” He broke away from Murcheson and shuffled to his roll-top desk. From a drawer he pulled his own revolver. “Let me save us all a lot of trouble.” He put the barrel in his mouth.

Skiffington looked embarrassed. He rubbed his eyebrows, then said, “Uh… Maybe you didn’t understand…”

Morrison snorted. “I told you he was too old to play this game!”

“Yeah, sure,” said Bramley. “But what do we do about him now…?”

“Shoot him!” Murcheson seethed.

“Naw,” (more…)

I’ve been sitting on a bunch of good news links, and I’m passing them on in bulk:

Schools bid farewell to textbooks, embrace iPads instead.

John Stossel on some exciting alternatives to public schooling. More, from Stossel’s Stupid in America TV special.

There’s more: Nolan Bushnell, father of Atari, is building computer games that will push smart kids through high school in one year.

Meanwhile, Fox News tells us that the internet will bring down the cost of higher education.

Ya think…?

Here’s what’s really happening: People all over the world — of every age — are taking control of their own education.

In the Stossel special, you will see children doing math years beyond their “grade level,” all thanks to videos distributed for free on YouTube. Small, cheap wireless computers will carry those videos — and Bushnell’s games and all those thousands of apps — everywhere.

The funny part in the Stossel video is the lazy uneducator bragging about how easy her job is, now that it’s being done by someone who actually knows math.

What is the right name for that unionized mis-educator? Unemployable.

The error in Milton Friedman’s original appeal for school vouchers and every subsequent argument is compellingly obvious: Once you’ve taken government money, you’ll never be (more…)