Education, Learning in complexity, Philosophy https://xitter.cf/t.co/pEfSEGXHlC https://xitter.cf/t.co/TSbhepUNea
Kochi, India
Joined September 2011
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Kiran Johny retweeted
If AI mapped a cure for terminal pancreatic cancer I don't think anyone would dare complain about its effects on medical unemployment.
But people are upset that AI can solve math problems and cause unemployment in performative mathematics.
Fuck them.
Complex domains are incommensurable (unless you ignore science).
Education is a complex system.
Therefore, treating PISA rankings like absolute truth is just streetlight effect in action.
PISA is nuts at worst, at best it creates a looping effect.
Obsessing only over what’s easily quantifiable is a classic streetlight effect...measuring what’s convenient rather than what’s meaningful.
"Evidence-based" schooling often just reduces complex human learning to whatever is easiest to measure.
Not usefull or complete.
Deciding what counts as a "good" education is an ethical value judgment, not a technical calculation.
IS Vs Ought ..Hume's Guillotine
If I had to name one area it would be the reduced focus on core subjects and accompanying elevation of woolly domains and goals that sound lovely but have no evidence base, the lack of strict guidance on minimum content that must be covered for core subjects, and much greater freedom for schools to shape what is taught. I find such a huge deviation from evidence and structure really astonishing, and can’t imagine my kid going through a system so alien to how I was taught in England. Honestly gives “alternative medicine” vibes.
Kiran Johny retweeted
Why do "invasive species" cause ecological damage? Lack of coevolutionary history in a context, the host system lacks mechanisms for pushback.
Same thing will happen if we don't allow AIs to coevolve "naturally". The "ecosystem" will lack mechanisms for pushback when an "invasive" gets introduced.
Kiran Johny retweeted
The trailer for Season 6 of #repod has just dropped!
We're doing something a bit different this year. We will still have guests, but instead of mainly talking about other people's books and ideas, we’ll be setting our stall out for what we think needs to change, based around ten provocations that will provide a narrative arc to this season:
1. it’s time to end the academic obsession.
2. We are measuring the wrong things.
3. The status quo won’t close the disadvantage gap.
4. Place-based politics means radical educational change.
5. There is more to human development than subject learning.
6. The timetable is the battleground.
7. Exams should be like music grades.
8. Ofsted has to go.
9. Free education shouldn’t end at 18.
10. We should have slice teams at the DfE.
Amusingly for a long-form podcast, our trailer is 30 mins long! I really like this format though, we might have to do something like this again.
Episode 1 will feature none other than @Sugatam. I cannot wait to dive in!
@realdcameron @CrownHousePub
@unjaded_jade
@LucyMPowell
youtu.be/UDRfobdiQ3E?si=c4X4…
Kiran Johny retweeted
The New Dark Ages, my book about the end of reading and what it means for our society is out now!
By purchasing it you can help to hold back the spread of the post-literate society (and by refusing to purchase it you will only confirm my thesis!)
Kiran Johny retweeted
Promissory Materialism: “Science Will Explain It Eventually”
Aka Chalmers's “Don't-Have-a-Clue Materialism”
Kiran Johny retweeted
Contrary to popular opinion, there are only two schools of materialism in the philosophy of mind.
1. Reductionism: Either reduce consciousness down to some physical thing (identity theory or reductionism)
2. Eliminativism: Or eliminate consciousness entirely (eliminativism).
That's it. There are no other options.
Kiran Johny retweeted
This book – 15 years in the making – was possible thanks to so many people. It is certainly a collective effort. Finally, preorders are available (link below).
Kiran Johny retweeted
Most of what was produced in academia today is noise, some 100% (performative academia), some ~90-99% (science).
Most of what was produced by the baker today is signal.
Old(2012) but gold.
A Tale of Two Robots:
Why Honda’s ASIMO struggles on uneven ground while Boston Dynamics’ BigDog handles ice & mud easily.
One mentally represents its abilities;
the other embodies them physically.
psychologytoday.com/us/blog/…
Is individual metacognition really necessary for great outcomes? Or, as a personal observation, is human "comprehension" often just an illusion of control while emergent systems and competent tools do the actual heavy lifting?
Daniel Dennett’s insight on "Competence without Comprehension" show tat execution never required a master mind...like termites building mounds without blueprints.
Building on this: in complex human systems, we constantly leverage tools we don't fully master
According to Daniel Dennett, nature thrives on Competence without Comprehension...termites build complex mounds through local rules without a single termite understanding architecture. Does education overvalue human "comprehension"?
New Substack: : Students should only use AI for things that they already know how to do well.
dtwuva.substack.com/p/studen…