Well, it's possible that our inferred concept of purpose is, as in
exaptation vs. spandrel, flawed. While we're arrogant enough to try to
engineer the world such that it teaches our offspring some particular
things are more important or valuable than other particular things, the
extent to which that's accurate, high fidelity, is questionable. It's
even questionable for us to suggest that any of our behaviors
well-target some set of traits (given that we're so terrible at
assessing what's objectively reliable).
That implies that the education systems we build may well be optimizing
for something we don't think they're optimizing for.
As I was growing up, we distinguished between "clever" and
"intelligent". But I'm not sure there's a serious difference. The extent
to which conscious, rational, deliberation actually works is in
question. The conversations around unintended consequences and the idea
that any particular (biological) control will "improve" the world is
increasingly suspect. In that context, it's difficult for me to accept
the lowest-common denominator argument ... however much I tend to agree
with it. When we're confused by the dominant trend, it's probably a flaw
in our model, not a flaw in the world.
At the moment, geeks are still somewhat cool. So my street cred is
adequate at the pub. But when I was growing up, we dorks were
UNIVERSALLY objects of scorn. I have full faith that the tables will
turn again and us nerds will be abused and relegated to a lower class.
Were I to have a kid, which I will NOT, I would teach them to adapt,
rather than identify.
On 6/1/23 11:42, Marcus Daniels wrote:
There was this incident a few months ago where Scott Adams made
unbelievable remarks about segregation. Someone that was once sort of a
cool guy, seemingly degenerated into madness. In conservative circles
in the U.S. there’s a strong resentment of Black Lives Matter, and one
story that I have heard is about a mansion that the organization
purchased, supposedly in the words one of the principles, using “White
Guilt money”. In Berkeley there were in fact many white people in the
streets for days over the George Floyd killing, and some of that is
probably just that. At the same time, I know a bit about the city of
Berkeley and have heard stories about how “white privilege” is
weaponized by individuals who happen not to be white, but see that there
is a lever they can use to get what they want even if what they want
only serves their needs and not any greater cause of justice. The
pushback against affirmative action is similar. Why should Asians that
get top scores step aside for people that did not when it comes to
admission to the best schools? Will the people that displace them act
like the individuals who cynically game the system or will there be a
productive social process of equilibration? I have not run into many
people that are against these reallocation techniques that acknowledge
the equilibration goal or the need for patience to make it happen.
They simply focus on the individual injustices of reverse discrimination.
*From:* Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Sarbajit Roy
*Sent:* Thursday, June 1, 2023 11:08 AM
*To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com>
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] India
Hi Glen
In so far as the report of dropping the periodic table and evolution
from the Class 10 syllabus, it is essentially a question of Hindu class
and caste dynamics operating in India.
Traditionally, education / knowledge in India was the domain of the
Higher castes like Brahmins (Pundits), the next caste beneath them
(Kshatriyas) were warriors so didn't need much bookish knowledge as they
also had Brahmins to advise them, the 3rd highest caste (Kayasthas) were
scribes and scriveners so allowed to read books but not to apply them ..
and so on. All the castes beneath them were prohibited from reading
books or acquiring Brahmanical knowledge - on pain of death.
Over the centuries by marrying endogamously the genetics of the various
castes evolved to amplify the physical characteristics required for each
castes' profession. The Muslim and then the British rulers of India were
more than happy to allow this state of affairs to continue while they
ruled as it kept the Hindus divided and segregated.
However, after India became independent in 1947, with the spread of
universal education the Brahmins were subjected to intense reverse
discrimination and negative reservations intended to curtail their
education domination. With the infiltration of the lower castes
throughout the education system the education standards of India have
been pulled down to the lowest common denominator. To take a simple
example which I cited earlier, a Brahmin student needs to score a 99+%
percentile to get into a top engineering or medical college (scoring 250
marks out of 300 in a negatively marked exam) whereas a low caste
(barely literate) student gets in even with a score of negative 50 out
of 300, with over 40% of the students unable to score +ve marks.
The reasons these chapters are being removed has nothing to do with
religion or creationism, and everything to do with the poor state of the
Indian education system where the bottom students can't cope. The low
caste Prime Minister of India (who has only passed Grade 4) claims to
have acquired graduate as well as post-graduate degrees from top
universities (which seem completely fake), Universities which he
publicly admits he never set foot in, especially seems determined to
pull everyone in India down to his semi-literate level.
Sarbajit
On Thu, Jun 1, 2023 at 9:29 PM glen <geprope...@gmail.com
<mailto:geprope...@gmail.com>> wrote:
I don't follow Indian politics. But these seem scary:
Religion and the decline of freethought in South Asia
https://freethinker.co.uk/2022/04/religion-and-the-decline-of-freethought-in-south-asia/
<https://freethinker.co.uk/2022/04/religion-and-the-decline-of-freethought-in-south-asia/>
India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01770-y
<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01770-y>
Again, going back to Sweet Tooth, the tension between having to
sacrifice hybrids to get the 'secret sauce' for the anti-viral (or
the cure) against a vegetarian ideology is interesting, flies in the
face of naïve utilitarianism.
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