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Geek Culture / Technology, and communications.

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Kenjar
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 12:44 Edited at: 12th Jun 2006 12:46
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With technology and communications so limited at the turn of the last century, and information so hard to come by to the common working man or woman, has access to wide spread communications today greatly affected the way we think? Are we as a culture more responsibile, or less so?

Is such wide spread communication a blessing or a curse? Are we truly all the richer for being exposed to so many idea's, or are our idea's influenced so much that our thoughts are truly not our own?

(There we go, nothing about personal beleif, just technology and how it affects people today.)

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Jess T
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 13:00
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It's not that our thoughts aren't our own, it's that we're getting polluted with falseties (false information) continually, of which, it is very hard to filter out that which is not true, disregarding it for nonesence, and accepting that which is true, integrating it with our current knowledge of the world.

With the vast amount of information that is available (and true) as it stands now, there needs to be a shift in teaching strategies at a younger age, whereby individuals are taught to develop these filters to only take notice of the truth instead of the lies.

Having said that, the catch frase "The world at your fingertips" couldn't be more potent... No longer do we have to seek out information from those who are respected in their fields, no longer do we have to go to the library and read book upon book to gain understanding of the intricacies of the world... We now are taken in by the sin of Sloth: Google it, and there is your answer...

Just my 2c

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Kenjar
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 13:10 Edited at: 12th Jun 2006 13:12
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Wow, a coheriant and logical response. Perfect thanks!

I would ask, in reguards to your suggested teaching strategies, how would you teach someone to filter out the bad information from the good? And could this teaching strategy be used against future children to instill obediance and cattlehurd quailities. Take the film "the island" for instance. A bunch of clones taught a specific truth about the world by a company who thought of them as little more then live stock. While that's an extreme circamstance, companies all over the world abuse information with false promises, over exagerations, and in some cases complete misdirection. We call it advertizing. And as we all know the whole point of advertzing is to instill a "deep desire" for the product. This often can't be done by saying "Washing Powder X, it's slightly better then Washing Powder Y and we charge you more because of it! No it's Washing Powder X, it cleans much better then Powder Y with it's patented new [insert amazing technology here].

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Jess T
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 13:24 Edited at: 12th Jun 2006 13:30
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Not so much a corporate style of "This is what you should beleive, and this is what you shouldn't", but more along the likes of "Here are some general rules that apply to most sources of information; Is it authored by a reputable source; Is it coherant & logical; Does it actually answer the question that made you look for it; etc"

I'm thinking more along the lines of between ages 7 to 11 (grades 3 to 6, before high-school here in Aus) where instead of Assignments/work that involves regurgitating what your teacher tells you, it's more of a research assignment that uses these new Communication technologies to obtain the correct information, but not only the correct information, correct information from reliable sources.
Much like what we have to do at Universities... If your references aren't substantial, no matter how right the answer, you can get a 0 mark.

Having said that, however, not everything is an exact science, and as such, these filters that I mentioned will be highly subjective, and vary from individual to individual with some people being totally anal about sources, etc, and others brushing it off and simply thinking about the other factors such as "Is this a logical answer? Does it answer my questions? Can I tell this to someone else and be able to convey the meaning behind it?".
(I'm about in the middle of those people )

One of the major things it boils down to, however, is; Is everyone willing to put in the effort to filter correct ifnormation, or will they simply accept what they read/are told, and live in their own small reality?

Put another way;
Do they want to use information to better themselves, or do they see it as more of a novelty to regurgitate at parties, impressing the mentally impotent opposite sex whose attention they can hold for those breif minutes..?

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Van B
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 13:26
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Look around you!.

Really, stop and look at the world we live in.

Now take away all the PC's, and the picture remains the same, people still believe in the news they are given, because if we don't believe the news we have problems. There has to be a constant stream of information that we can trust.

Problem is there's not really any such thing, most people believe what they read in their morning tabloid, or what the BBC or ITV, or CNN tells them. The people that would suffer are us, the disidents.

I use the internet to form opinions, having an opinion about something is very different from knowing it's story - when you have several, often conflicting versions of events, you can conclude for yourself what happend, what is important, and what you can basically disregard.

Put this way, about 12 months ago I got ill, lost a ton of weight and felt like crud. Went to the doctor of course who found nothing, no followups after finding nothing, apparantly I'm healthy as an ox.

So it kept going, until about 6 months ago and the symptoms got unbearable and decided to research it myself. First website I found told me I had untreated diabetes, and it was right - so how can .73 seconds of google be more important and more useful than years of doctor training?

Because people tend to believe what their doctor tells them, but disidents aren't blind.

The information on the internet is as trustworthy and viable as you believe it to be, you can either believe it or use it to form an opinion - but the important thing is that it's there, and the people that need to know get to know.

Aegrescit medendo
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Jess T
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 13:32
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Quote: "The information on the internet is as trustworthy and viable as you believe it to be, you can either believe it or use it to form an opinion - but the important thing is that it's there, and the people that need to know get to know."


Very well said

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 14:26
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Thoughts are never your own. If you were sent back in time to the caveman times, and were then turned back into a baby, you would not be more intelligent than the cavemen. You would not invent the wheel unless you were luck enough to see something rolling down a hill.

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Megaton Cat
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 14:30 Edited at: 12th Jun 2006 14:30
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So you guys remove "Meaning of life" from the thread title and all the sudden this becomes a civilized discussion?

Ugh.


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Bongadoo
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 14:50
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Quote: "Problem is there's not really any such thing, most people believe what they read in their morning tabloid, or what the BBC or ITV, or CNN tells them."


Although I agree with what you say there about tabloids and some news channels, I disagree strongly with putting the BBC in that category. The BBC is the last great bastion of hope in a world that is full of corruption and bad influence. The BBC works by getting money from Joe Pulic through our licence fees, which in turn allow it to be the only truly independant network in the world, immune from government legislation/inteference, corruption and internal politics. It will quite happily openly criticise itself and its programs (Dead Ringers, Have I Got News for You, Points of View etc). It has no bias, and will always discuss topics in depth, usually ultimately leaving the viewer to decide his/her own views, without trying to influence them. This makes it the only network I will ever trust to be objective and independant. And it has no adverts. And no I don't work for the BBC

Quote: "With technology and communications so limited at the turn of the last century, and information so hard to come by to the common working man or woman, has access to wide spread communications today greatly affected the way we think? Are we as a culture more responsibile, or less so?"


Global communications makes things very difficult for todays governments. In the past, civilisations would go to war with other countries, because the kings/leaders/emperors knew that while their country was at war, it would unite the people within the country against a common foe. If a country wasn't at war, then groups within the country would form and fight against each other instead. This is a big problem in some communities in Britain that never talk to each other but live in close proximity; muslim communities usually seeming to bear the brunt in Britain.

This tactic of going to war to unite a country doesn't work anymore, and was learnt especially in Vietnam/Falklands. People will unite against the goverment instead because they get to see the atrocities that these situations bring, as well as the opinions/views of the people from the country they are fighting brought to the screen by independant news networks (like the BBC ) I think George W. Bush tried to solve this by creating an invisible enemy (the terrorists!), but people aren't fooled by this anymore either, especially after seeing the chaos in Iraq.

Anyway I'm rambling now. In conclusion, I think technology/communication brings with it great benefits and freedoms, but with that also comes a great reponsibility to use it correctly, as an individual as well as nations.

Nuts to that. I'm going to download some porn, find some plans to make a bomb, join the Ku Klux Klan forums, buy a Thai-bride on eBay and groom some kids on MSN. Bye!
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 14:58 Edited at: 12th Jun 2006 14:58
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Quote: "So you guys remove "Meaning of life" from the thread title and all the sudden this becomes a civilized discussion?"


Yeah, because technology = -creativity is present day conjecture, and meaning of life is conjected reasoning based on minimal to no information.

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Van B
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 15:16
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So your saying the BBC has no political bias!!!?

I know what your saying, and I'd agree and I tend to pay attention to BBC news, but at the end of the day, it's still a news program telling you the details other people think you should hear. That's what I'm saying though, for most people the 10'o'clock news is enough to go on, assuming your confident that the BBC is telling us everything and not leaving out details for the wrong reasons.

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Tinkergirl
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 16:15
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The BBC has been long renowned as somewhat biased in the UK regarding politics. It has definitely favoured one over the other between Labour and Conservative over the last few decades (and maybe before). (I'll quickly drop this particular subject, however, as it dances too close to the AUP).

People are human, fallable and emotional - they cannot be completely unbiased. There are degrees of biasedness, and some are much much worse than others, but unless you're going to be getting a your news from... actually - I can't think of a completely unbiased news source. Not even computers.

Sorry - what was the question?
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Kenjar
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 16:34 Edited at: 12th Jun 2006 16:41
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Quote: "So you guys remove "Meaning of life" from the thread title and all the sudden this becomes a civilized discussion?

Ugh."


I blame monty python, and hitch hikers. It's become something of a comady subject.

Also the first post made after mine was a logical, well structured response. I suspect if it had been a picture of a T-Shirt with "this tread will get locked" we'd have a different thread here.

Quote: "Although I agree with what you say there about tabloids and some news channels, I disagree strongly with putting the BBC in that category. The BBC is the last great bastion of hope in a world that is full of corruption and bad influence. The BBC works by getting money from Joe Pulic through our licence fees, which in turn allow it to be the only truly independant network in the world, immune from government legislation/inteference, corruption and internal politics. It will quite happily openly criticise itself and its programs (Dead Ringers, Have I Got News for You, Points of View etc). It has no bias, and will always discuss topics in depth, usually ultimately leaving the viewer to decide his/her own views, without trying to influence them. This makes it the only network I will ever trust to be objective and independant. And it has no adverts. And no I don't work for the BBC "


Agreed, the BBC has always been able to stand up for itself, even on contriversial issues such as gay rights. The BBC where the first broadcasting company to put a gay man on air, for which if memory serves, he was arrested for. I'll have to research this a bit, I'm straining my memory a little. But the point is because it gets licencing fees it doesn't have to catter to what's popular, everyone who own's a TV has to pay a licencing fee so their funds are secuire. The BBC was also very vocal about the war in Iraq, and the statements in reguards to the hutton report got the organaization into alot of trouble which lost us it's director at the time. So while not immune to politics, it was directed at one man rather then the organization as a whole.

Quote: "I think George W. Bush tried to solve this by creating an invisible enemy (the terrorists!), but people aren't fooled by this anymore either, especially after seeing the chaos in Iraq."


Alas, it was Bushes father (also a president) who started this whole war in error, oh sorry I mean war on terror, in the first place. He's just carrying out his fathers rantings.

Quote: "In conclusion, I think technology/communication brings with it great benefits and freedoms, but with that also comes a great reponsibility to use it correctly, as an individual as well as nations."


I agree completely, couldn't have put it better myself.

Quote: "Yeah, because technology = -creativity is present day conjecture, and meaning of life is conjected reasoning based on minimal to no information."


Sorry I have to disagree with that. The meaning of life is whatever the indervidual needs it to be. The mistake people make is trying to turn it into a forumla, the ultimate reason that should apply to everything. That is Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy's fault, as I said before it's been turned into a comady subject, and sometimes through humour idea's take hold without us realising it.

Quote: "That's what I'm saying though, for most people the 10'o'clock news is enough to go on, assuming your confident that the BBC is telling us everything and not leaving out details for the wrong reasons."


I think the real problem is that you are right, most people do go on the basis of the 10pm new broadcast. Trying to sum up the world on a schedual, and within an hour, is never going to cut it. I personally listen to BBC Radio 4, there's alot more information there. I completely ignore ANY american broadcast, because all it does is pander to popular opinion, and try to generate revenues through viewer watching. (Meaning no offence to any americans).

I do find that radio four, and the bbc world news service, while out of favours with the younger generation (and to be honest I only listen because my father always does) does have multiple sources, plus you don't have to listen to it in the same way as you watch a television. It can be put on in the background while you get on with work, even when your doing something else it's suprising what sinks in without your noticing it.

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Megaton Cat
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 17:56 Edited at: 12th Jun 2006 17:57
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Quote: "
Yeah, because technology = -creativity is present day conjecture, and meaning of life is conjected reasoning based on minimal to no information.
"


What you're trying to say is that this will shift from technology to pollitics to philosophy to religion and ultimetly back to the meaning of life again.


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Fjope
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 18:01
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Quote: "With technology and communications so limited at the turn of the last century, and information so hard to come by to the common working man or woman, has access to wide spread communications today greatly affected the way we think?"


Yes, we have completely ceased to do the afore-mentioned activity for ourselves.

Quote: "Are we as a culture more responsibile, or less so?"


We're as a whole much less responsibile, I don't think it's because of technology itself, but rather the way it has been used. I mean, the main thing it has been used for is entertainment. Not that there is anything wrong with entartainment, but when the focule point of a socity is the latest sports event, or movie realease, it gets a little stupid(the socity that is).

Quote: "Is such wide spread communication a blessing or a curse? Are we truly all the richer for being exposed to so many idea's, or are our idea's influenced so much that our thoughts are truly not our own?
"


It is a blessing when the information it comunnicates is correct, but the truth is often boring, and people don't like boring. So any news corporation in their right mind, who wants to make a profit off their product, in this case information, is going to spice it up a bit. After all news agencies are first and foremost bussineses, and reporters are just putting their forty-two hours a week like the rest of us; and they need to make money in order to stay in bussiness and take home their paychecks which means they will air what the majority wants to see and hear. Making them slightly unreliable. So as Van B said it's better to read a few reports made by diffrent groups and then average them. The problem is that most people, at least in America) don't do this.

Go figure.

"Only the Dark Side deals in absolutes!" - Obi Wan

The above statement is proof that George Lucas has destroyed Star Wars.
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Three Score
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 19:12
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grrrr stupid double posts and whats worse, the last one got locked

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=81348&b=2

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Kenjar
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 19:52
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Read it again, then think for five minutes.

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Jeku
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 21:04
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@Kenjar - Stop with the political talk, or we'll have to lock this thread.

"I understand creative people. After all, I worked with towel designers." - Ray Kassar, former head of Atari
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Kenjar
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Posted: 12th Jun 2006 22:09
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Okey Dokey, will do.

So who else things Bush is a... Okay okay, just kidding.

What news sources to others use and favour?

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 00:09
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Quote: "Quote: "Yeah, because technology = -creativity is present day conjecture, and meaning of life is conjected reasoning based on minimal to no information."

Sorry I have to disagree with that. The meaning of life is whatever the indervidual needs it to be. The mistake people make is trying to turn it into a forumla, the ultimate reason that should apply to everything. That is Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy's fault, as I said before it's been turned into a comady subject, and sometimes through humour idea's take hold without us realising it."


"The meaning of life is whatever the indervidual needs it to be."

That sentence actually doesn't work logically. Read it carefully, and you will find that it has two opposing arguments from beginning to end.

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Kenjar
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 01:15
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Well, lets forget about that, this thread while it has simular eliments is NOT about the meaning of life, but about technology and how it affects us and our cultures.

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TDP Enterprises
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 02:42
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I think.......you think too much.

Snow Wars is making its return, check out the Game Design Theory board for more info...
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Kenjar
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 11:41
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It's not possible to think too much, unless the thoughts are distructive in nature.

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TDP Enterprises
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 16:13
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I was jst bein' sarcastic about thinking too much. I agree with you that it's not possible to think too much, but disagree about them having to be non-destructive.


AAAAnywho, back on topic.

Quote: ""With technology and communications so limited at the turn of the last century, and information so hard to come by to the common working man or woman, has access to wide spread communications today greatly affected the way we think?""


Greatly, but not in the way you're discussing. In Elementary school we didn't use calculators until about 5th or 6th grde. Now in first grade when leanring simple math, teachers are permitting their students to use calculators for even the most basic of problems. Because of this today's children are loosing the simple math skills that had been pounded into our pervious generations' heads. I think its extremely important for children to know how to do math problems without a calculator. And I've read over and over again that math your math knowledge is directly proportianate to the level(for lack of a better word) of your logic proccesses. I think the increasing availability of information in today's society is going to lead to an even more increased reliance on it.

Snow Wars is making its return, check out the Game Design Theory board for more info...
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Jess T
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 16:18 Edited at: 13th Jun 2006 16:20
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Bongadoo,

I've deleted your post.
Check your email (bob-at-bongadoo.com) for a reason why - Nothing major, just want to try keep this thread nice and free of those kinds of debates

Jess.

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Kenjar
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 17:24
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Quote: "Because of this today's children are loosing the simple math skills that had been pounded into our pervious generations' heads. I think its extremely important for children to know how to do math problems without a calculator."


An interesting point. On the other hand, children aren't afraid of using a calculator. The theory of adding 1 and 1 has not been lost to them, they can apply the rules, and as you progress onto higher level mathematics like algibra, it's impossible not to know what you are doing. Sure if you ask one of them what 17 times 32 is, they'd have trouble doing in in their heads, on the other hand, they know the more advanced theories of mathematics and how to apply them.

The problem is that education is too standardized, there's no room for movement, and personal abilities within the system. I personally actually spent the majority of my school life in special needs classes. The teachers failed to detect, that far from not understanding the problems posed to me, I was simply sick to death of doing the same problems over and over again. I also, at the time never saw any reason to listen to what anyone was trying to teach me because again, at the time I didn't see a reason to know it. On the other hand, by the age of 13 I knew how to use a soldering iron, I could program in BASIC, I was designing and making my own radio transmitters and receivers, granted at the time it was simple push pull systems, but I was doing it without supervision. I was also writing poety, and my own stories. The intelligence was there, when I saw a reason to deploy it. When it came to GCSE time however, and I was going to get a definate reward in the form of GCSE certificates which would be with me for the rest of my life, everything changed. I walked away with B's, C's and an A, while I wasn't the highest scoring person in the school I was umong the top 20%

My point is that with such high puple to teacher ratio's in UK schools its very difficult to cater to intervidual talants and needs. And this is possibily set to get worse as technologies for remote teaching become more wide spread. The view is increasing now, that the teacher doesn't have to be presant at all, all there needs to be is a moniter and a PC. That scares me, because teachers will develope even less of a relationship with their teacher then they have now. I was lucky that my perants pushed to get me into GCSE's at all, imagin how much worse it could be if no teacher was presant in the room.

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Megaton Cat
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 17:43
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I think they should not have computers in rooms with younger students, but older students (age 16-18) need to already start pushing themselves and shouldn't require a relationship with their teacher.


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Kenjar
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 18:13
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You've just discribed higher education as it exists now anyway. I dunno about you but my college teaching basically consisted of "hi there, learn about this, here's the book. Look here if you get into trouble. I'm off for a fag. Bye!"

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Megaton Cat
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 18:24
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Since I mentioned the age group, I am obviously talking about highschool.
(Unless wherever you live, kids go to college at 16)

All throughout highschool there will always be a teacher hovering over you pushing you to do something not relevent to your chosen career. I just wanna get out and go to a graphic design college, not learn how awsome trigonometry is.


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Van B
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 18:39 Edited at: 13th Jun 2006 18:49
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Some years ago, I think the general feeling in schools was very different. For a start, there was a recession so honest teachers were painting a fairly bleak picture of our futures, but they also gave thought to areas that might hold a future, IT really.

Speaking of trig, I totally nailed that due to the headstart you get with 2D coding - but it made the maths teacher recommend I take technical drawing, which eventually landed me a job in an engineering office - saving me from god knows what career (not saying what I was working as before that!).

I did study IT in college, but often it's easier to get further in IT by getting rooted in a smaller company and actually having a clue about computers. Most office workers only have a very basic understanding of PC's - you know I email tips to the folk at work, like using Control and C to copy!, it's startling how many people didn't know that. People who say that nobody is inexpendable really don't know how deeply rooted a decent IT engineer can get in a company, being able to quickly develop systems in-house practically sets your contract in stone. Quick tip, always write a nice long manual to go with a system, makes you look really professional while stopping anyone actually reading it and understanding the system properly - keep em in the dark through their own dispondancy then milk them every salary review .

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Kenjar
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 18:58 Edited at: 13th Jun 2006 19:00
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Quote: "Quick tip, always write a nice long manual to go with a system"


Grivens! you write manuals!?!? lol, my last IT manager, and my father (who is also an IT manager) never document anything. If there is one thing that will mean you get to keep your job, it's being the only person in the place who knows how the system works! Oh and setup a remote access point as well, so if you go on holiday you don't come back to a failed company

Plus beware all women with handbangs, and protruding network access points. Apparently they like the hang their handbangs on them.

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Bongadoo
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 19:05
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Quote: "Because of this today's children are loosing the simple math skills that had been pounded into our pervious generations' heads. I think its extremely important for children to know how to do math problems without a calculator."


The previous generations reasons for needing to know how to do some calculations by hand was because there was no other way of doing it. Knowing the theory of how numbers can be manipulated with different operators is very important, and that should be taught. However, learning long division/multiplication etc. is essentially pointless. I have never needed to long divide or multiply since learning it. Not needing to do these trivial and mind numbing tasks anymore leaves more time for children to learn more advanced mathematics (which rarely even involves numbers!), which actually involves thinking a bit, is interesting, and requires you to solve problems.

For example, Su Doku, which is extremely popular now, is actually an algebra puzzle. It requires you to think about a problem from different aspects, and eventually leads to a solution. The numbers are irrelevant and could be replaced with symbols. People like these puzzles because they are algebraic and require some logical thinking, and it actually shows mathematics in its true form, which is great for the discipline. Multiplication and division is what turns people off mathematics, it requires repetition and nothing else. Can you imagine anyone doing long multiplication puzzles? No, because it's repetitive and boring.

Simple repetitive operations like multiplication and division are tools to be used for other means. Imagine a mathematical problem as a journey from one city to another. Yes, you can walk, but that would take forever and you'd be really tired by the end. But, if you drive (ie. using a calculator) the journey, you won't be fed up at the end, it'll be a lot quicker, and you've still enjoyed the view. Then you can get on with another journey straight away. Obviously you have to learn to drive properly first, to understand the car and how it works, which is the important bit. The only problem is if you are never taught to drive properly. Then you get arrested.

Anyway, the calculator allows you to be free to get on with the interesting and useful part of mathematics, but you should understand the principles behind it first. But I don't really think it takes that long to learn those principles.
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Van B
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Posted: 13th Jun 2006 19:10
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In the UK, if you don't document absolutely everything then you can't aquire quality system certificates (ISO9million+odds etc) - and without these certificates companies with certificates won't deal with you - great system!.

But it's imaterial, because nobody ever reads the manuals. Often though people do mess up systems and always complain that they don't understand it, throwing a well written manual in their face after that is priceless.

Aegrescit medendo
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Jess T
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Posted: 14th Jun 2006 12:19 Edited at: 14th Jun 2006 12:21
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I agree 100% with Bongadoo - Why waste time writing out pi to 300 decimal places when your pc can do it for you (alot more accuratly than you can) in about 1/10000th of time you can...

Quote: "I've read over and over again that math your math knowledge is directly proportianate to the level(for lack of a better word) of your logic proccesses."


Not in the slightest bit true...
I'd be the first to admit that my simple addition/multiplication abilities above single numbers is totally attrocious - Yet, I'm doing a Math based University course (and maintaining a mark above 85%)!
And, better yet, my friend can tell you pretty much any sum or multiplication you give him straight off the bat, yet he's next to failing the course (Only just keeping his mark about 55ish%)!
This is because these simple math techniques simply aren't needed!

Oh, and so you know, it's a Games Technology course - I design/code/impliment digital games, etc... Alot harder than what you might think. For example, with the knowledge I gain from this, I could (theoretically) write my own rendering engine, etc...

Look up Linear Algebra - That's the math class we just completed for this semester - You don't even have to know what 2 + 2 is, all you have to be able to do is work out the algebra like Bongadoo said.

Coming back to communications and how this effects us - This is parallel to the way we're communicating these days.
Instead of doing the math by hand, we do it by calculator and use that extra bain power to learn something newer/harder.
Instead of communicating/doing things without technology, we use this technology to our advantage and do it quicker (or not at all for autonomous tasks) and save ourselves for bettering our understanding of some hard task, or higher-level thinking.

But again, that's all subjective - I wouldn't know the first thing about the complexities of building a bridge, and likewise, the Engineer building that bridge wouldn't know the first thing about the complexities of Memory Registers in a Computer, or how RAM actually works, etc, etc...

Just another 2c to mull over

Team EOD :: All-Round Nice Guy
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Bongadoo
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Posted: 14th Jun 2006 13:38
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Quote: "But again, that's all subjective - I wouldn't know the first thing about the complexities of building a bridge, and likewise, the Engineer building that bridge wouldn't know the first thing about the complexities of Memory Registers in a Computer, or how RAM actually works, etc, etc..."


True, but like you said previously, you can then "use that extra bain power to learn something newer/harder." It allows you to learn faster and solve problems faster, so maybe you could then go on to learn how to build a bridge after you've mastered memory registers

I can't do my times table at all (well, I can do the 9's!). I refused to learn it when I was younger because I knew I would never need to know it, and I never have (the only exception being playing darts, but then I just let someone else keep score). I also never really learnt long division, and if you asked me to do some I wouldn't be able to. I do however have a degree in Aerospace Engineering, which was obviously very maths intensive, plus included modules such as aerothermodynamics and astronautics which use the tools you learn from mathematics to go on to solve greater problems. So to anyone that says children shouldn't be exposed to calculators/computers until later, I disagree and think they should be exposed to them as soon as possible. I think I'm a good example that you don't need to know any of these old fashioned nostalgic processes anymore; they are defunct and don't need to be taught. You don't need to know your times table to be able to build a rocket!
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