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Learning and the Mesh

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Tue, 2010-01-12 08:09
#1
Halloween Halloween's picture
Learning and the Mesh
Maybe it has been asked before, but here is my question. When you are reading the background section, you realize that almost everyone has access to hte mesh, doing so IMHO remove the need for schools, since you can access all the human knowledge from the mesh (something we are strating to experience with the net). It is mentionned in the background section that Titan is known for its universities. What are universities used that is not research? Are you going to scholl to acquire skills instead of knowledge? Thanks Marco
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Tue, 2010-01-12 12:12
standard_gravity standard_gravity's picture
Re: Learning and the Mesh
Universities today do not primarily teach facts, but skills. What is most important today (and even more so in EP) is not to know everything, but to know how to find and use facts correctly and efficiently. A psychosurgeon, for example, may have access to data on all known proceedures, a host of previous cases and operations, various different techniques etc, but will still have to be able to put all that into practice. And have the confidence to do so. Also, when you have been doing something for a while you will learn the important knowledge / facts in relation to that activity. Even with the mesh and inserts, it is quicker to simply know something than to look it up.
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Mon, 2010-01-18 08:40
Iv Iv's picture
Re: Learning and the Mesh
Researchers and students sharing resources, tools and a similar timezone. Basic schooling is probably done by muse-like teachers and through VR sessions, but top-notch research require a low time lag with the teacher. Better concentrate all the people in the same place.
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Sat, 2010-01-23 14:18
The Doctor The Doctor's picture
Re: Learning and the Mesh
Or possibly AGIs that are subject matter experts on the topic. I kept envisioning mesh-based learning as something akin to the online interactive tutorials that are all the rage these days for training new recruits or employees on policies, procedures, and requirements (infosec, blogging policy, opsec, wireless networking, what have you).
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Wed, 2010-02-03 19:47
jackgraham jackgraham's picture
Re: Learning and the Mesh
If you read a little further, it's explained. Titan is the major population center for the outer system, and habitats out there are spread out over great distances. At the extreme end, if you're on Neptune, you're a few light hours away from Saturn. Even closer than that, though, Mesh latency becomes a major issue for distance learning. So people who want to learn specialized skills do it the old fashioned way: they go off to college. Sure, once you're on Titan (and thus close enough for instantaneous communication), you might never set foot in a classroom, but a stubborn streak of traditionalism combined with the still-present transhuman desire for face to face contact means that many people do in fact go to classes in academic buildings. Plus, you need labs for the hands-on stuff. In the Inner System, distance learning is much more common because you don't have so many people spread out in far flung habs.
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Thu, 2010-02-04 02:48
standard_gravity standard_gravity's picture
Re: Learning and the Mesh
In other words, an interesting (and rare) example of the outer system being more traditionalist than the inner system. I like it!
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[img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/ext_userbar.jpg[/img] "People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes." - John Dee
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Wed, 2010-04-21 14:53
Admini Admini's picture
Re: Learning and the Mesh
Halloween wrote:
When you are reading the background section, you realize that almost everyone has access to the mesh, doing so IMHO remove the need for schools, since you can access all the human knowledge from the mesh (something we are starting to experience with the net).
Not to rain on the 'net parade, but information is different from knowledge. Being able to access the facts does not mean that you will be able to organize them in a useful manner. Really, it's already been said.
standardgravity wrote:
Universities today do not primarily teach facts, but skills. What is most important today (and even more so in EP) is not to know everything, but to know how to find and use facts correctly and efficiently.
And earlier, if more prosaically, by Yeats: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
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Wed, 2010-04-21 15:26
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Learning and the Mesh
Admini wrote:
Not to rain on the 'net parade, but information is different from knowledge. Being able to access the facts does not mean that you will be able to organize them in a useful manner. Really, it's already been said.
standardgravity wrote:
Universities today do not primarily teach facts, but skills. What is most important today (and even more so in EP) is not to know everything, but to know how to find and use facts correctly and efficiently.
And earlier, if more prosaically, by Yeats: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
Yes, but the forms of information on the net might help mitigate these issues. For instance, open source tutor AIs might be downloadable in the outer system, which can teach a person skills (at least to a certain degree) without the need for them to interact with other egos. Simulspaces intended to closely imitate the real world can be used for hands-on labs, down to very miniscule details. Granted, the limitations of AI knowledge will eventually push a person to need outside sources of knowledge and skill to increase their capabilities beyond what an AI can know, but before that (especially when it comes to elementary skills), the mesh and computer technologies can suffice.
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Thu, 2010-04-22 03:07
standard_gravity standard_gravity's picture
Re: Learning and the Mesh
Agreed. If a brinker would decide he needs a new skill set, or to (in one way or another) create progeny, he would surely rely on AI:s, skillware, mesh-ipidias, simulspaces etc. I think that many people in more densely populated areas/habs would value human interaction, be it on the mesh/in simulspaces or IRL.
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[img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/ext_userbar.jpg[/img] "People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes." - John Dee
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