Steering the Future to Education by Don Limuti

Don,

Yours is the first essay I've read that hits the nail on the head about education, apart from Peter J who identifies it more subtly. I agree you are absolutely correct. You also argued the case well for a short essay. (and I didn't know Apple provided such a deal!).

I discuss eugenics, which we increasingly have to face, but seems powerless in the most important area, improving and evolving the intellect of the population. Peter talks of the undeveloped potential power of the quantum computer in our heads and suggests teaching new ways of using it. I agree, but it's a bottom up process, eugenics a can't do it. We need free education and better educational methods.

I was attracted by your title and abstract, but it's a comment on humanity that no others have been. I have a strange feeling of power because a fair score will put you at the head of the community scores, momentarily at least. I apologise for almost certainly steering you to an ensuing future helter skelter down!

Judy

Don,

I apologise, I'm signed in with my code but seem unable to score your essay. Perhaps I can't influence the future after all. I'll check the instructions.

Judy

Dear Don,

Good to see you this time. I must say that yours is a very thoughtful and practical essay. I take particular note of the following:

"...thesis is that the best educated populace will create the best and most productive free market."

"...the funding for education should be constant, and considered the substratum of economic activity"

"...Education methods evolve and are subject to individual choice, and there needs to be a variety of methods and schools to choose from. There will be winners and losers in this competition."

Somehow, I find myself wanting to really think about points raised in this essay.

For instance, in my country as in some others, there is a problem of corruption; how do you think this will play out if we had to pay people to go to school?

Best scores, Don.

Chidi Idika

Social Security for the elderly is absolutely necessary because of failing health and the need to reduce the population. If people choose not to have children in support of population control then they need social security to offset businesses unwilling to hire senior citizens. Not everyone is mentally talented and can run their own business. Not everyone can find investments that do not degrade with time.

Republicans consistently promote unethical allocation of resources and opportunities.

What I find disgusting is that the majority of social security we pay goes into the Federal general fund, and not for social security benefits !!!

Republican supported unethical allocation of resources.

Bush (Republican) was quoted as saying that "...education is for the wealthy, as it should be."

Bush and Cheney created and supported Al-Quida (arabic for "the corporation"), with the full support of the Republican Party.

Bush ordered the US Army Corp of Engineers to NOT help New Orleans stop the flooding. They were ready to deploy within hours. The Corps of Engineers was going to sink a barge and block the levy hole with sand bags around the sunken barge. The Republicans wanted to destroy the homes of the poor and drive them out of their homes. New Orleans created an ordinance during the flooding that made it impossible for the people to rebuild their homes; requiring $200,000 homes to be built as a minimum on a lot size that exceeded most of the lots deeded at that time. Republican developers then came in and stole the property when people did not pay the taxes on property the ordinance preventing them from using.

If you are a Republican, you support corruption in the worst of ways; Blind allegiance. Or you are yourself corrupt.

I will NEVER again vote for a Republican, or anyone that votes on Bills as a Republican.

Your proposal offends me in the worst of ways.

Hi Rick,

I understand how you feel. Before Katrina the cost of fuel was $1.64 and after Katrina fuel jumped to almost $3 and then 911 was used to push prices up to $4. It certainly looks like Republicans are coordinating major disasters for personal gains of large corporations. While they manipulate smaller businesses into thinking they are being taken care of. Sometime, look at pro corporation bills and see who votes which way. You can spot the Republicans that are holding offices as Democrats.

Don't listen to what politicians say, find out how they are voting !

Rep Carl Levin in Michigan seems to be almost bi-partisan; I haven't followed his activities in a while.

I know education is tied to the government and politics, but political ranting is a bit off topic.

That seems to be a worthy subject regarding the steering of humanity if the topic ever comes up again. Methods of Fighting Corruption in Government

Dear Don Limuti,

It's always a joy to read your essays. And this one is particularly joyful, as you have written six pages on a proposal that I only made on my last page -- which is to pay people to learn. We overlap exactly in two areas. Here is a quote from my essay:

"Why not an educational fund to replace the welfare that pays people to do nothing? Base it on paying people to learn-replacing the current system, wherein one graduates with a degree and a debt equivalent to a mortgage on a modest home. Similarly, unemployment benefits should be replaced by the same educational fund. An effective program that rewarded learning would be an incredible improvement over a welfare system that often amounts to simply subsidizing a voting constituency. Teach them to fish, don't feed them fish. Pay-to-learn courses include any knowledge that improves society-classes on handling money, first aid, child care, or physics-with pay proportional to degree of difficulty. There will be cheaters, and scams, but how does this differ from the widespread fraud and abuse of welfare, disability, or other government largess today? Systems can be designed to minimize cheating."

We differ in a few details, but neither my one page nor your six pages is sufficient to spell out such radical change. For example, you say 'selected citizens'. I would make that all citizens. One assumes that at some point one can make more money by employing his knowledge than by simply staying in school, and I do believe the pay rate should depend both on difficulty of subject and upon satisfactory performance. Ideally one might move in and out of school as appropriate to one's circumstances. And I would certainly not limit this to public schools. You mention Apple. In my scheme the schools could and often would be privately funded, particularly for more specialized subjects.

Anyway, congratulations. You've done it again. I will kick your essay higher than my own so that your essay has higher visibility.

I hope you enjoy my essay and I look forward to your comments.

Best regards,

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Don,

I currently have a 5.9 score, and I tried to give you a 6, but, like Judy Nabb above, the system did not let me score you. You better check with FQXi...

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Dear Don,

It is always a pleasure to meet again when we have made our points through essays here on FQXi.

I have read your contribution and indeed in Holland we say " When you own youth you own the future", and indeed the egoism of several generations is the origin of forgetting what our real goal is in this short life.

Maybe humans are living too short to take care of the future...

I hope that you will find some time to read my entrance : "STEERING THE FUTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS" where the item of our possible posterity is also a (short) point of reflection, parhaps leave a comment on my thread and/or leave a rating that is in conformity with your appreciation 5pls do not leave any numbers...)

Good luck

Wilhelmus

same problem as Edwin, the rating I gave is not coming through..

Hi Don,

a very clearly set out, enjoyable read. Sensible suggestions though I wonder about whether all unemployed would want more education. There may well be school drop outs and those that did badly in the education system. The type of schooling would have to be very different.I'm not sure the Apple model could be scaled up.Though it sounds very good. There really has to be motivation to learn and minimum wage jobs still need doing.Also more education does not necessarily create more suitable jobs and then there are graduates who can't find suitable work and end up unemployed or in minimum wage jobs anyway. The advantage of your proposition is that they don't also have a large debt to repay from receiving a student loan.

Good luck,Georgina

I've been having the same problem: I can't rate essays using Firefox or Internet Explorer, but when I use Google Chrome, somehow it works... Is it something wrong with my computer, or with the FQXi website?

I've been having the same problem: I can't rate essays using Firefox or Internet Explorer, but when I use Google Chrome, somehow it works... Is it something wrong with my computer, or with the FQXi website?

Hi Don, Hi Edwin,

I agree with you both that education is key if we want humanity to successfully steer the future. You have focused on the accessibility of education, and on strategies to make people invest in their education. In my essay, I suggested that countries that have community service or military service could have their citizens replace this service by going to school (which could be done virtually by using MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)).

I also believe that, to optimize the impact of education in steering the future, we should refocus the curriculum on issues that are the most important for the future of humanity... what I call the "Futurocentric Curriculum". If you have the time to check out my essay, rate it and comment on it, I would greatly appreciate it... In particular, I am interested in finding out the opinion of others concerning which topics should be part of a futurocentric curriculum...

Marc

Hi Don,

Excellent as usual. I fully support free-education for life for everyone. The idea that citizens are not only to have free-education but they would be paid to be educated and trained to give them the tools to realize their dreams and aspirations. Yes, there is no but but and but, but yes for yes, yes and yes. Many times, "but" means lack of imagination, being simply lazy or being simply defender of interested groups or simply afraid of new and untested ideas. I rated a ten for this brave idea that I also supported and proposed through what I called the Scientific Outlook Free-Lunch Economic System.

I wish you doing well.

Best,

Leo KoGuan

I envision a trend that has been getting more and more popular with young and rebellious folks, of creating open-ended work~play~education spaces that welcome all ages, types, and interests of humans (and others!). Everything from free-schools, to unschooling programs, to hacker spaces, even to very traditional libraries and museums are creating a sort of bottom-up educational system where everyone is encouraged to explore life, the universe, and everything in all its diversity, from multiple perspectives, and use what folks find in solving our shared problems. In other words, I think we're evolving a healthy, natural, emergent way of discovering and sharing information that will surpass the more rigid, artificial, and top-down approaches of mainstream schools.

I'm currently looking to create one of these kinds of spaces. And I see others creating them as well (some of which I've participated in) which gives me much hope, since a well informed public is truly the best solution to our challenges as a species and planet.

Dear Mr. Limuti,

Your abstractions filled essay was the most entertaining one so far published, and I do hope that it does well in the competition. I do have one minor quibble about it that I hope you do not mind me mentioning.

Reality is unique, once. Reality is not taught in any school in the world. Every school only teaches erroneous abstractions such as mathematics and physics theories. As you will learn if you read my essay REALITY, ONCE, Bertrand Russell thought up a perfect abstraction 1+1=2, but reality ain't perfect and his abstract assertion was pragmatically incorrect. As you will learn if you read my Theory of Inert Light that I have posted in the comment box of the Peter Jackson essay, Albert Einstein was wrong about the speed of light, and he was even more incorrect when he falsely stated that imaginary observers had the ability to see.

Why would I give up my monthly Social Security check to spend my time attempting to swallow lying propaganda in a school just because I will be paid for doing so? Do you think I have no morals Mr. Limuti?

Regards,

Joe Fisher

Don,

You've surpassed you usual high standard, and you subject is close to my heart and I think far more important than we assume. I'm pleased you do it justice. I also think we use the on board quantum computers we've evolved very poorly and a root and branch change to teach us how to take proper advantage is long overdue. The question of when to rely on instant front cerebral cortex response and when to use out lobes it critical. Ensuring our left/right sides work in unison also takes training.

I see the issues in practice. My own essay derives 'quantum' predictions with a classical mechanism (geometrical) and represents a self apparent major leap forward towards unification, with wide ramifications. However most are 'scared' of QM as it seems acausal, and those who've leant it are thoroughly indoctrinated that it IS acausal, so reject logic! Such is the human condition. I think it's worth top marks for identifying what's probably the most important plan of action for human advancement. My own is written for the average SciAm reader to understand, subliminally suggests the power of non Earthcentric thinking, and even has a touch of romance! I'm sure you'll like and understand it, but please confirm and flag up any tricky bits.

Very best of luck in the results.

Peter