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Note: this post is a part of the series:
Albert Einstein said that the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
So,
let’s use our imagination.
Let
us imagine an economy where almost all jobs require physical strength (digging trenches,
lifting heavy things, etc.). What will happen to this economy if due to
whatever reasons eventually 90 % of all people become dystrophic with some kind
of muscular atrophies? The best-case scenario, they all will be so smart and
will build robots that can build other robots and will do all the physical
work. The worst-case scenario – that economy will decline, that society will degrade.
Our
current and future economy is said to be based on extensive use of high-level knowledge.
In
2016, two-thirds of the labor force had at least some college experience. Another
report
says that in 2018 nine out of ten jobs went to people with college a degree. And another
report
says that in 2020 out of 55 million job openings only 36 % can be filled by
high-school graduates, and the rest will require some college education.
There
is no doubt that in the future, the majority of jobs will require people with advanced abilities to think.
As I wrote in The Road To World
Domination Lies Through Mass Education; Part II, the knowledge
economy has not reached yet its full capacity, but it has already become outdated,
because the future economy will not be based on the ability to quickly retrieve
some facts from a memory, but will be based on the ability for designing solutions to new problems.
And that ability is based on a highly developed brain.
What
will happen to an economy if the majority of people will have an underdeveloped
atrophic brain?
=> That economy will become stagnant; that society
will become the loser of the economic
world.
It
will not happen tomorrow, or even in a decade. But it will inevitably happen if the education of the masses will lag the demand for smart people – not just knowledgeable, but also smart!
And
the education of the masses will lag
the demand for smart people when the government does not state such a goal (i.e. producing smart people) – as
a specific goal for the full educational system.
There
is another famous saying that is attributed to Albert Einstein: “Doing the same
thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity.”
I’m
pretty sure that Einstein meant a different word, like “idiocy” or “stupidity”,
but he was just too polite
to use it.
However,
according to the Einstein’s definition, all administrators on all levels of American
system of education, and all people running various educational programs in the
government (including NSF)
and philanthropy (including Gates Foundation) are
insane. For decades (!) those people have been doing the same things over and over
again, without making any significant difference.
“Design economy” may seem like in
a distant future. But it will never be achieved
if someone – an individual, or an institution, or an agency – will not start a deliberate
research on how to make all
students to be (1) knowledgeable and (2) smart.
NOW!
Before
it’s too late.
Evidently,
China
becomes the front-runner in the race toward the development of the mass
education system that will be required for the economic domination in the
future world.
“15-year-old students in China are almost four full grade
levels ahead of
15-year-old
students in the United States in mathematics.”
When
formally a nine-grader has an actual math skill of a fifth-grader, that person
will never be able to reach any sufficient level of thinking. Never. Too late.
Period. And there are many colleges where college-level education is not much better (I have evidence!).
The
question remains – who, and more importantly – when – will some person with a developed brain (hence – imagination),
or an institution/organization ran by a person with a developed brain (hence – imagination)
take this issue as serious as it must be taken and starts doing something about
it?
Appendix I
What if even though 90 % of the population has underdeveloped brain, the other 10 invent advanced AI that builds robots enough to take care of the economy? Possible?
Well, theoretically - yes. Practically, (a) the human-level AI is not coming any soon (decades!); (b) what a society that would be?
Appendix II
About ten years ago I read some piece on China. The author was ensuring people that China would need decades to catch up with the U.S.. I wrote a short comment: there is "no" China, there are two "Chinas" - "Poor China" that is a constant supply of a cheep labor for "Rich China", that already has the size of America. In America there are 300 million people. "Rich China" already has 300 million RICH people, rich by American standards. This is how economists and politicians have to analyse China.
In ten years this comment has become only stronger.
Click here for the full list of the posts on education
What if even though 90 % of the population has underdeveloped brain, the other 10 invent advanced AI that builds robots enough to take care of the economy? Possible?
Well, theoretically - yes. Practically, (a) the human-level AI is not coming any soon (decades!); (b) what a society that would be?
Appendix II
About ten years ago I read some piece on China. The author was ensuring people that China would need decades to catch up with the U.S.. I wrote a short comment: there is "no" China, there are two "Chinas" - "Poor China" that is a constant supply of a cheep labor for "Rich China", that already has the size of America. In America there are 300 million people. "Rich China" already has 300 million RICH people, rich by American standards. This is how economists and politicians have to analyse China.
In ten years this comment has become only stronger.
Click here for the full list of the posts on education
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