footprints in the sand
Jul. 26th, 2006 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eI've seen something that has turned my world upside down, but excited me... even scared me a little too -- perhaps how Robinson Crusoe would have felt, finding those footprints on the beach after he'd been stranded on that island.
All my life I have felt a kind of order in the universe. Life is special. It self-organises and propagates. And intelligence evolves from life. We are how the universe learns about itself. Life is the most important thing. And learning is the second most important thing, because learning is the foundation for intelligence. All other things, money, politics, tradition, are not even dirt beside those. Where they aid life and learning they can be tolerated. When they get in the way of them they are a complete waste of time.
Suddenly I realised something crucial. I have always had something of a fetish for knowledge. I read and learn constantly. And today I saw the footprints. The world is not as I'd thought. If I'd thought about it the right way I'd have seen it earlier. In fact I've nibbled around the edges... but never really tasted it.
Data is no longer paramount.
A great shock to me. After life itself I'd always held it highest. But the evidence has been around us for a long time, and gradually strengthening. I used to get yanked out of my chair by my ear in primary school by my bully of a teacher when I couldn't remember my times table. I still find it difficult to do simple maths, but who cares? I have a calculator. I can calculate cube roots now with ease. I daily manipulate vast matrices of data in creating virtual worlds. I don't need to remember all that data. I just need to understand why. Okay, so that is knowledge too, but it is knowledge of a different kind; it is understanding.
So, today it is becoming important to understand rather than to be able to store data. We have machines to store data. I carry a pendant smaller than my thumb that can hold about ten thousand paperbacks!!! I can log in to Wikipedia and uncover facts any time I need, and look further on the wider net or in my thousands of paper books. Simple data is now secondary.
We have moved to a new level. Knowledge about knowledge is now what is important. Understanding how to use data. Remember this next time some moron politician tries for a kneejerk response by pushing the button marked 'literacy and numeracy rates'. They are missing the point entirely. Being able to remember your times table in the middle of a computer revolution is irrelevant. Access to data and knowing how to use it is what is important.
The first speech recognition system that doesn't need to be trained has hit the shelves of shops. Dyslexia is being de-fanged. An inability to write is not such a problem anymore. When we get systems that turn text into fluent speech (a more difficult task, but coming closer) literacy will no longer hold the power to make or break a child's future.
All my life I have felt a kind of order in the universe. Life is special. It self-organises and propagates. And intelligence evolves from life. We are how the universe learns about itself. Life is the most important thing. And learning is the second most important thing, because learning is the foundation for intelligence. All other things, money, politics, tradition, are not even dirt beside those. Where they aid life and learning they can be tolerated. When they get in the way of them they are a complete waste of time.
Suddenly I realised something crucial. I have always had something of a fetish for knowledge. I read and learn constantly. And today I saw the footprints. The world is not as I'd thought. If I'd thought about it the right way I'd have seen it earlier. In fact I've nibbled around the edges... but never really tasted it.
Data is no longer paramount.
A great shock to me. After life itself I'd always held it highest. But the evidence has been around us for a long time, and gradually strengthening. I used to get yanked out of my chair by my ear in primary school by my bully of a teacher when I couldn't remember my times table. I still find it difficult to do simple maths, but who cares? I have a calculator. I can calculate cube roots now with ease. I daily manipulate vast matrices of data in creating virtual worlds. I don't need to remember all that data. I just need to understand why. Okay, so that is knowledge too, but it is knowledge of a different kind; it is understanding.
So, today it is becoming important to understand rather than to be able to store data. We have machines to store data. I carry a pendant smaller than my thumb that can hold about ten thousand paperbacks!!! I can log in to Wikipedia and uncover facts any time I need, and look further on the wider net or in my thousands of paper books. Simple data is now secondary.
We have moved to a new level. Knowledge about knowledge is now what is important. Understanding how to use data. Remember this next time some moron politician tries for a kneejerk response by pushing the button marked 'literacy and numeracy rates'. They are missing the point entirely. Being able to remember your times table in the middle of a computer revolution is irrelevant. Access to data and knowing how to use it is what is important.
The first speech recognition system that doesn't need to be trained has hit the shelves of shops. Dyslexia is being de-fanged. An inability to write is not such a problem anymore. When we get systems that turn text into fluent speech (a more difficult task, but coming closer) literacy will no longer hold the power to make or break a child's future.