It has been a while since I had a chance to talk with my friend and colleague Jim Garrison (he wouldn't mind my naming him in public; he considers himself a public intellectual and besides, he's basically not on social media) who is the person on top of this and my source of information, but many of these education comparisons from the past have failed to compare like-with-like. When looking at educational results from Europe and Japan, for example, we only see *the top 40% who are slated to go to university*. Meanwhile, results from the US are taken from 100% of persons in high school. When properly normed, those disparities shrunk, and in some analyses vanished. But again, my information here is over a decade old.
Another 'by the bye' -- part of the Out-Of-Control (OOC) nature of AI is precisely that it is *NOT* all algorithms. Contemporary AI also employs "heuristic" programming. This is where the AI has various types of feedback systems that allow it to "learn" *and modify its own code*! An algorithm is always fixed. Consequently, after these things have been running for a while, no one anywhere has any idea what the code now looks like. (Fun fact: Arthur C. Clarke, in naming the computer in '2001: A Space Odyssey', chose HAL because they are each the preceding letter to IBM. But then he had to make sense of those letters in the story. So he declared that they stand for "Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer." Stacey, Stacey, my mind is going, Stacey. I can feel it; I can feel it ... )
Based on the lede, I had guessed at an entirely different sort of wish list from yours. I think yours is more likely to come about in the near term. I guessed Universal Healthcare, Universal basic housing, and Universal Basic Income (UBI).
It is a long-standing complaint of mine that we insist on putting "successful" business people in charge of *economic* issues. That's like having your dentist (who, let us suppose, is a very good dentist) be in charge of neurosurgery, because they both have something to do with the head. I probably know more about basic ECON than just about any famous "business leader" you could name, and it isn't even an area of scholarly focus for me, just a better than average intellectual hobby.
That being said, there actually ARE words -- I'll just not share them here -- for the level of vituperation I am prepared to heap upon business persons being put in charge of educational systems at any level.
Oh, HEAR HEAR. I couldn't agree more. It was the same delusion of a delusion the American voting electorate employed when voting Trump into office. "Well, he's a 'successful businessman,' let's put him in charge."
That worked well.
I do love your posts, Gares. I always learn something. Didn't know about the HAL/IBM connection.
I think you and Stacey are both on the right track. I just wish I had enough faith in my fellow Americans to believe there was a snowball's-in-a-hooker's-panties chance of any of it happening.
"We can do this. We have to do this." And yet, we WON'T do this...because it makes too much sense and some Republican in Congress will stand up and scream, "WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!" Despite this, we'll continue rolling $2 BILLION per day through the front door of the Pentagon for no discernible reason other than defense contractors need to prop up their stock prices.
Sunlight really is the best disinfectant, but cockroaches HATE sunlight, so good luck getting churches and other tax-exempt organization to agree to transparency. They will scream about added costs, which is a smoke screen, but not an altogether unwarranted concern. It will cost more money to be transparent, but considering that taxpayers are currently subsidizing them, I think they can take the hit.
I don't disagree with your proposals- far from it. I just don't think there's the political will, and I think too many American are far too intellectually lazy to give a damn to know enough about these issues. What they care about is that their kids aren't being taught CRT or- like Libs of TikTok- aren't going to Drag Queen Story Hours.
Greetings from our stupid RepubliKKK.
And, yes, it's grey, damp, and dreary here in Portland and I'm in a crap mood.🤷🏻♂️
Oh, you get NO argument from me. You're right--there's no political will, and Americans ARE too intellectually lazy. Social "controversies" they understand; the lack of transparency in fiscal matters, not so much.
And you can be in a crap mood, my friend. More than justified.
It has been a while since I had a chance to talk with my friend and colleague Jim Garrison (he wouldn't mind my naming him in public; he considers himself a public intellectual and besides, he's basically not on social media) who is the person on top of this and my source of information, but many of these education comparisons from the past have failed to compare like-with-like. When looking at educational results from Europe and Japan, for example, we only see *the top 40% who are slated to go to university*. Meanwhile, results from the US are taken from 100% of persons in high school. When properly normed, those disparities shrunk, and in some analyses vanished. But again, my information here is over a decade old.
Another 'by the bye' -- part of the Out-Of-Control (OOC) nature of AI is precisely that it is *NOT* all algorithms. Contemporary AI also employs "heuristic" programming. This is where the AI has various types of feedback systems that allow it to "learn" *and modify its own code*! An algorithm is always fixed. Consequently, after these things have been running for a while, no one anywhere has any idea what the code now looks like. (Fun fact: Arthur C. Clarke, in naming the computer in '2001: A Space Odyssey', chose HAL because they are each the preceding letter to IBM. But then he had to make sense of those letters in the story. So he declared that they stand for "Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer." Stacey, Stacey, my mind is going, Stacey. I can feel it; I can feel it ... )
Based on the lede, I had guessed at an entirely different sort of wish list from yours. I think yours is more likely to come about in the near term. I guessed Universal Healthcare, Universal basic housing, and Universal Basic Income (UBI).
It is a long-standing complaint of mine that we insist on putting "successful" business people in charge of *economic* issues. That's like having your dentist (who, let us suppose, is a very good dentist) be in charge of neurosurgery, because they both have something to do with the head. I probably know more about basic ECON than just about any famous "business leader" you could name, and it isn't even an area of scholarly focus for me, just a better than average intellectual hobby.
That being said, there actually ARE words -- I'll just not share them here -- for the level of vituperation I am prepared to heap upon business persons being put in charge of educational systems at any level.
Oh, HEAR HEAR. I couldn't agree more. It was the same delusion of a delusion the American voting electorate employed when voting Trump into office. "Well, he's a 'successful businessman,' let's put him in charge."
That worked well.
I do love your posts, Gares. I always learn something. Didn't know about the HAL/IBM connection.
I think you and Stacey are both on the right track. I just wish I had enough faith in my fellow Americans to believe there was a snowball's-in-a-hooker's-panties chance of any of it happening.
Well, a hooker's panties aren't necessarily the warmest place one might find one's self ...
"We can do this. We have to do this." And yet, we WON'T do this...because it makes too much sense and some Republican in Congress will stand up and scream, "WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!" Despite this, we'll continue rolling $2 BILLION per day through the front door of the Pentagon for no discernible reason other than defense contractors need to prop up their stock prices.
Sunlight really is the best disinfectant, but cockroaches HATE sunlight, so good luck getting churches and other tax-exempt organization to agree to transparency. They will scream about added costs, which is a smoke screen, but not an altogether unwarranted concern. It will cost more money to be transparent, but considering that taxpayers are currently subsidizing them, I think they can take the hit.
I don't disagree with your proposals- far from it. I just don't think there's the political will, and I think too many American are far too intellectually lazy to give a damn to know enough about these issues. What they care about is that their kids aren't being taught CRT or- like Libs of TikTok- aren't going to Drag Queen Story Hours.
Greetings from our stupid RepubliKKK.
And, yes, it's grey, damp, and dreary here in Portland and I'm in a crap mood.🤷🏻♂️
Oh, you get NO argument from me. You're right--there's no political will, and Americans ARE too intellectually lazy. Social "controversies" they understand; the lack of transparency in fiscal matters, not so much.
And you can be in a crap mood, my friend. More than justified.
I agree with each of your proposals. And pardon my bad joke...but Sinema's "boots are gonna walk all over us" and already have.
LOL! Ain't that the damn truth.