Fate of the human race as it looks right now.

[too-open-minded]

Well i'm 18 and have a incomplete highschool education. I have some suggestions but none are concrete.

 

Yes I understand your annoyance, most people whine but do nothing. They say our government is run by corporations then they shop at Walmart or eat Mcdonalds.

 

 

I would say my best suggestion would be redoing the entire educational system, the most valuable time for the development of someones mind is when they are young. Why is this not taken advantage of in education? No, i'm not talking about brainwashing children. People seem to visualize that when I propose this idea.

 

I'm speaking more on a level of emotional therapy, developing individual interest, and building self esteem for children rather then telling them what to think. Try to get them to preserve their imagination and curiosity.

[iNow]

I think education is a very worthy focus area. I would include basic lessons in civics, and a much stronger emphasis on critical thinking, problem solving, and the STEM classes (science, technology, engineering, and math).

[Essay]

Let's observe the results---i.e. the "swaying" that should soon occur.

 

 

I've been swayed to be a bit more optimistic about the future. It is encouraging to see that someone so young recognizes the looming horizon, and sees that science and education can provide a path forward to solutions. Most critically, it's encouraging to realize that he sees these solutions are harder to achieve, so long as people refuse to accept or understand the evidence that science presents about the future.

 

Have we done any planning for the future, as a Nation, since the Carter Administration? Seems as if we leave it up to the Giant Invisible Hand of the marketplace, anymore.

 

~

[proximity1]

proximity1, I apologize if I've offended you in any way. But I don't quite understand the response above. My point is that while it is easy to point out problems and cry "woe is us", it is much harder to actually think of solutions to fix problems. That is, it is easy to point out things that are wrong, but much more meaningful to point out good solutions. I am sorry to say, but in the work force, we call those people "howler monkeys" because they like to sit there an hoot and howl and make a lot of noise, but don't actually help solve anything.

 

So, let's start over, start clean:

 

I agree that there are some possibilities for some very negative consequences in the future. While I don't quite agree with how negative some of the posts have been, again, I do agree that there are distinct possibilities of negative consequences.

 

I, of course, would prefer to minimize these possibilities as much as possible. What concrete suggestions do you have for minimizing these possibilities?

 

I really and sincererly do think you sell yourself short in proposing to start over clean. That's because I see (and saw) something quite significant in your earlier remark. But rather than point it out myself, I wanted to extend that opportunity to you. And, in a very indirect way, your subsequent comment implies what I had had in mind. And now, I hope to make that point quite explicit:

 

When I read your remark, "Suggest some concrete, well-reasoned ideas and my bet is that attitudes will be swayed by those good ideas. So, do you have any?" I was struck by how very much it seems to ignore about the overwhelming tendencies in human behavior, and of what spectacular contrary examples history offers us to undermine this very optimistic view of yours. My reading of history leads me to notice, unlike your view, the vastly many examples where well-reasoned ideas had simply no measurable effect on anyone---and, above all, no effect on those who count and who counted most: those in power.

 

In briefest terms, simply, everyone and anyone can and does have his own personal notion of what shall constitute or not constitute "well-reasoned ideas" and simply reject out of hand any that do not measure up (perhaps, most often because they are simply not welcome ideas in the first place) Well-reasoned ideas we've had--by the bucket-full.

 

If you say that it's really all just a matter of being patient, and that, with time, the tide will turn, I answer that none of us has any idea how much time remains to learn any given lesson, "X", before the failure to learn it spells general doom. Nor does anyone know, by the same token, whether or not, indeed, what's already been done has effectively doomed us. That may be true. I don't pretend to know it for sure. But, what I do pretend to know for sure is that the idea---often held as an unstated and unexamined working assumption, rather than as an expressly recognized part of our most basic assumptions---that the time we have in which to figure these things out amounts in effect to "forever" or "infinity" --the idea that this is the event horizon---that idea is a snare and a delusion. No human can ever know eternity or grasp it----which is why it offers so compelling and welcome a refuge of comfort. So many terrible things are pushed way, way, way out there at the edge of infinity. But, of course, infinity has no edge and can never be approached.

 

What I hope you may see in my response here is not starting over but something that you can readily describe as progress of a sort. If there was any resentment felt on my part earlier, this is to assure you that there remains nothing of it now. Your views and responses remain very much of interest to me.

 

Well i'm 18 and have a incomplete highschool education. I have some suggestions but none are concrete.

 

Yes I understand your annoyance, most people whine but do nothing. They say our government is run by corporations then they shop at Walmart or eat Mcdonalds.

 

 

I would say my best suggestion would be redoing the entire educational system, the most valuable time for the development of someones mind is when they are young. Why is this not taken advantage of in education? No, i'm not talking about brainwashing children. People seem to visualize that when I propose this idea.

 

I'm speaking more on a level of emotional therapy, developing individual interest, and building self esteem for children rather then telling them what to think. Try to get them to preserve their imagination and curiosity.

 

Doesn't matter that you're 18 and have an incomplete education. I'm about three times your age and I have an incomplete college education. What you do have, as I think is clear from your posts, is a very alive imagination and the intelligence to do whatever may be necessary to get any education that you care to obtain---inside or outside of the classroom. It may be, of course, that your unconventional approach to things may mean that keeping strictly inside the classroom for that education, inside, where conventional-thinking is "King", may be a very hard and trying road to follow. I could not agree more strongly than I already do with your recommendation that we give a serious and profound "re-think" to the educational system. The thing is, all such systems are, by definition, authority structures, power structures; for that reason, they necessarily serve power's and authority's interests and anyone who, like you, chafes at authority's dictates, will have a harder time getting educated in the conventional way.

 

Einstein's whole life is an example of this. Feynman's life is not quite so marked an example of it, but remains a partial example. People who, to use a now-tired phrase, "think outside the box" aren't much liked or appreciated by those who think "inside the box". There's nothing to be done about this. That's the way it is, the way it's always been and, I'm sorry to say, probably the way it's always going to be.

 

What you should remember, among other things, about yourself is that you have an uncommon curiosity and capacity to see things that a lot of other people would just as soon not notice, let alone examine. These qualities are a natural gift. Don't despair that you possess them, even though they place you outside the happy medium of conventional approval. Recognize the positive and the negative consequences of your gifts and go and do all that your imagination can give you the insight to achieve.

Edited September 12, 2012 by proximity1

[too-open-minded]

I hope so, i've also noticed everyone that tells me i'm intelligent or what not agrees with my views. To others i'm just an idiot lol.

 

I am a pretty inquisitive person but don't put me on a pedestal

 

 

Well see here is my problem with education, I don't know what field to go into. I'm guessing I should find the field that interests me most but what is everyone else's opinion on individual fields?

 

What field do you think has the most potential to make leaps and bounds for humanity?

[imatfaal]

../

What field do you think has the most potential to make leaps and bounds for humanity?

 

It's cliched but my answer would be - the field that you can feel genuine enthusiasm for.

 

At university/in a career you will need to work really hard, endure economic strife, make personal sacrifices, and generally be a bit miserable some of the time - it really really helps if your topic/field is one in which you find pleasure. Every so often you need to be able to smile to yourself as you realise why it is you enjoy that area of study/work. I speak as one who spent 5 years at Uni failing to find the right course and getting thrown out because sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'roll were more appealing that my lamentably bad choice of subjects. I had to get a job when the Bank of Mum and Dad pulled the plug - and I loved it and still do; 10 years after starting work I started a law degree part time and loved that even more. So I really mean it when I say - choose the subject wisely, don't do what you feel you ought to, or are pressured into etc - find something you love and dive in with 100 percent commitment.

[iNow]

find something you love and dive in with 100 percent commitment.

Great advice, but I haven't yet found a way to get paid for posting on SFN, TSF, and surfing Facebook.

[too-open-minded]

Sex and drugs, yeah man i've learned my lesson with that.

 

Sex with somebody you don't care about just leaves you with this empty feeling and drugs really just take you away from reality. I'm a recovering addict, partly the reason I never payed attention in school.

 

 

Although i'm sure their will still be mistakes to be made although I will learn from them rather than repeat them.

 

 

Meh, i'm most interested in astronomy, cosmology, etc. Although this really isn't going to help humanity much. I guess when the time is right I will know what field to pursue.

[iNow]

i'm most interested in astronomy, cosmology, etc. Although this really isn't going to help humanity much.

It will if we ever have to go off planet to survive and propagate.

[Ringer]

Sex and drugs, yeah man i've learned my lesson with that.

 

Sex with somebody you don't care about just leaves you with this empty feeling and drugs really just take you away from reality. I'm a recovering addict, partly the reason I never payed attention in school.

 

 

Although i'm sure their will still be mistakes to be made although I will learn from them rather than repeat them.

 

 

Meh, i'm most interested in astronomy, cosmology, etc. Although this really isn't going to help humanity much. I guess when the time is right I will know what field to pursue.

 

Although we are drifting off topic as someone who's been in the same situation I may have a couple relevant things for you to remember. The crap you go through and get used to living that lifestyle will be a huge difference in what you may experience truly trying to get a good education. It may make you uncomfortable, I know I was, but don't ever let that make you think the old way was better just because you are more comfortable with it. Never let what you have done or haven't done define you, make yourself what you want to be not what you were. Don't get discouraged because people that may be less intelligent know more because they have had more schooling, you can always learn. Most of all stay mindful of your goals.

 

Any way, that's my self-help paragraph of the day.

[too-open-minded]

You are very right iNow, although our biggest problem right now is even being able to leave the planet.

 

 

Lets get A straight before we worry about B.

 

I mean lets think about energy here for a second, we know of (or atleast I can think of one way) of harnessing energy rather than by means of kinetic. Are we really going to leave our planet with a combustion engine or even a fission powered turbine?

 

We really need to start trying to look at energy from every possible angle but still try and improve what we already have.