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The purpose of going to
college is to learn how
to think, he said. Who
said?
No one
seemingly alive today.
The idea of educating
one's brain dates
far back, even before
Socrates.
I had to go to college.
All my siblings did. My
parents were
immigrants, refugees
from the pogroms in
Eastern Europe. Their
education was limited
but they had an
admiration for the
treasures, the
knowledge that could be
found in higher
education. Even without
it, my father created a
successful business and
my mother harbored a
wisdom that came
from... where?
Go to college and
become someone better,
they all said. Go to
college and understand
the world you live in.
Go to college and learn
to think. Despite a few
miniumn requirements
that some liberal arts
colleges had for basic
technical courses in
mathematics or
chemistry, the emphasis
was on the world around
you and the world in
you... history,
philosophy, psychology,
sociology, languages,
art, music, writing and
more. The emphasis was
on: learn to think, as
it had been for
hundreds and in some
collected human places,
even thousands of years.
Today, in America, the
term "liberal
arts" has faded
into a shadow on the
wall. It's puzzling
or threatening or
unpatriotic or
whispered on street
corners. Today, in
America, college is a
fountain for the
marketplace. Get your
ticket and have it
punched.
A Turn of the Scope.
In the
human beginning,
there were two people.
Probably more... human
life evidently emerged
in many places on the
planet almost
simultaneously. There
were probably a variety
of variations, but what
we know is that the
male and female pair of
the species dominantly
evolved because this
combination survived
and reproduced better
than any other. Did we?
The evolution of the
species human has been
a cacophony of twist
and turns and complex
jumbles. It has taken a
long time to reach what
it is today. Actually
an eye-blink in
Universal time. Now, in
the wind-storm of
so-called Artifical
Intelligence, it is
apparent that
biological evolution is
at an end and you and I
and our progeny are
emerging into an nearly
indestructibe form,
self-contained, perhaps
even immortal. Or are
we? Well, not us...
them that is coming
from us.
A Footnote About That Wind-Storm:
Fake is a term for an
idea that prevails and
grows all over the
World-Wide Web. In the
wind-storm of Artifical
Intelligence, in both
cases, fakes or faux,
the driving motive is
outsourcing, shadow
contracting, tempered
with compulsive
consumption and no
small amount of greed.
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