The Overwhelming Influx of Superfluous Information

[IH8PunkRok]

When I say basic, I mean the foundational building blocks of knowledge that you need in order to learn more. This will change over time, things will get added and things will get dropped. I mean.... We don't teach how to use slide rules any more. Instead we teach how to use calculators. And I'm sure 30 years from now, things will be different still.

Example: In math, you need to know and be familiar with a base 10 numeric system, order of operations, how to work with addition/subtraction/division/multiplication/exponents/roots/etc. If we become a space race and needing to know how to calculate gravity at a given distance, wind resistance, friction and surface heat, orbital paths, etc becomes "basic" then so be it

Good. Now tell me do those latter things you mentioned require the former things you mentioned? knowledge of the base 10 numeric system?

To stay brief, yes, they do.

So as basic become more complex the amount of information required increases.

See the dilemma?

What was once basic and took 18 years to complete now takes some 25 years to complete and will only continue in that direction.

We only have so much time on this Earth and if it is wasted learning the basics how will we ever advance as a race? Won't that affect our working force negatively? It cannot be advantageous to spend our "prime" years still learning the basics

We need another way. We need to surpass our limited ability to learn so that we don't limit ourselves and future generations to the knowledge we can study in a lifetime

[SnowDrifter]

That kind of goes with my other post though. It's just different ways of implementing basic mathematical rules. No different than finances - interest rates, payments, stuff like that. Basic math really, but we never teach the implementation of it. If nothing else, we can tell&show students this is what you can do with this equation, this is how you can apply it to your life, and leave it at that. If they know it exists, it's just a keyword search away. If you know how to work with numbers, it's as simple as plugging in the equation

[IH8PunkRok]

That kind of goes with my other post though. It's just different ways of implementing basic mathematical rules. No different than finances - interest rates, payments, stuff like that. Basic math really, but we never teach the implementation of it. If nothing else, we can tell&show students this is what you can do with this equation, this is how you can apply it to your life, and leave it at that. If they know it exists, it's just a keyword search away. If you know how to work with numbers, it's as simple as plugging in the equation

I like what you are saying, but I offer this retort. If you are given a list of 30 words over the course of a minute how many of those words would you remember?

[Dwn4BassAlan]

I see your point and while I'm on board with lots of it I do have some reserves about things. I think it really "depends" on the situation. You don't want me, as a planned to be general thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon to skip half the school years required to learn the basics about biology and anatomy and instead to just learn how the heart alone works and how to do a heart bypass, and have that be my only training before doing that on you or anyone you know right?

But I think that it's stupid that I should be forced to take all these general eds in philosophy and art and math and English when none of it will EVER apply to me no matter what career I take up. That's what I think we need to discard. Then we could still learn just as much of the stuff we NEED, but instead of it taking until I'm 32, it could be by the time I'm 25 or something.

[Dwn4BassAlan]

That kind of goes with my other post though. It's just different ways of implementing basic mathematical rules. No different than finances - interest rates, payments, stuff like that. Basic math really, but we never teach the implementation of it. If nothing else, we can tell&show students this is what you can do with this equation, this is how you can apply it to your life, and leave it at that. If they know it exists, it's just a keyword search away. If you know how to work with numbers, it's as simple as plugging in the equation

I like what you are saying, but I offer this retort. If you are given a list of 30 words over the course of a minute how many of those words would you remember?

psychology would say most people would be 7-9 words, with 30% from the beginning of the list 60% from the end, and 10% from the middle.

[IH8PunkRok]

I see your point and while I'm on board with lots of it I do have some reserves about things. I think it really "depends" on the situation. You don't want me, as a planned to be general thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon to skip half the school years required to learn the basics about biology and anatomy and instead to just learn how the heart alone works and how to do a heart bypass, and have that be my only training before doing that on you or anyone you know right?

No. Not at all. And even with your gen ed comment I do not think we need to do away with any information or even super specialize people. We need a better way to know everything we can know

[IH8PunkRok]

That kind of goes with my other post though. It's just different ways of implementing basic mathematical rules. No different than finances - interest rates, payments, stuff like that. Basic math really, but we never teach the implementation of it. If nothing else, we can tell&show students this is what you can do with this equation, this is how you can apply it to your life, and leave it at that. If they know it exists, it's just a keyword search away. If you know how to work with numbers, it's as simple as plugging in the equation

I like what you are saying, but I offer this retort. If you are given a list of 30 words over the course of a minute how many of those words would you remember?

psychology would say most people would be 7-9 words, with 30% from the beginning of the list 60% from the end, and 10% from the middle.

So even in condensed form the amount of information given would still be too much for us to be able to use. There is simply too much information for us to learn. So we need to figure out a way to skip the learning and get right to the knowing

[Krakin]

If I may ask, what is your opinion of a more "optimized" form of education, H8?

[SnowDrifter]

Speaking of education... Is this part of an essay or a research paper by chance?

[IH8PunkRok]

If I may ask, what is your opinion of a more "optimized" form of education, H8?

The thing that humans are best at. Tools.

We need to make a tool.

Just as the farmer needed a tool to thresh wheat faster we need a tool to hold and distribute knowledge. An extra brain if you will, preloaded with the current "basics"

And no Snow, I just think a lot