Solving the University Problem

by knowing how to answer when kids ask "why"

Back in the day universities were all about “the life of the mind,” experts agree. Only in my understanding, the old Brit universities were about teaching ruling-class kids the lessons of politics in Greece and Rome. That is what "Greats” was all about. Plus a bit of philosophy. Then they invented “Modern Greats,” featuring philosophy, politics, and economics, because modern elites needed to be modern.

All along, Katherine Dee writes:

the deep reading of difficult texts was the practice of a small, privileged minority.

But really, who gives a darn about Greats and Modern Greats? Most people get their understanding of the world from religion and the politics rammed down their throats in K-12 and 60 Minutes. What people want is credentials, so they can get a job.

The modern American university sells credentials: signaling to employers that you were smart and conscientious enough to get in and to finish. It sells networks: the friends you make and the alumni you can email.

Katherine Dee wants school like a shop class, to teach you how things work. I guess they call it “learning by doing.” That’s certainly how I learned to program computers. I took a short class conducted by a co-worker and then started to program in FORTRAN. Decades later, when I wanted to create a website, I went on the internet to show me how to create a simple website to say “Hello World.” And then I took it from there.

Back in the day, you needed a shelf full of computer and programming manuals in order to program computers. Now you just ask AI.

An example. Our Brother printer said that we needed a new drum. So we got one. But it still said “replace the drum.” So I looked it up on Google AI. It said that the printer can’t detect that you replaced the drum, so you have to manually tell the printer that it’s got a new drum. And Google AI tells you how to do it. Almost.

Maybe all you need to do to prepare for life is to read science fiction. I believe that Elon Musk was a great sci-fi reader as a kid.

No kidding. I’m reading Heinlein’s Friday about “an AP (Artificial Person), a biologically engineered superwoman”. Here’s where it gets weird. They have this thing called “Shipstone… a fictional, ultra-high-density energy storage device.” Then they have “pneumatic trains [that] run through subterranean vacuum tubes, using maglev-style propulsion to achieve intercontinental speeds”. You mean like Elon’s Gigafactory and Boring Company? And, of course, humans in Heinlein novels are interplanetary.

But let’s get back to the topic in hand. Universities. Guess what. In Friday, Heinlein writes about an economist noting that bachelor’s degree holders earned 30 percent more than non-degree holders.

Such an undemocratic condition was anathema to the California Dream, so, with great speed, an initiative was qualified for the next election, the measure passed, and all California high-school graduates and/or California citizens attaining eighteen years were henceforth awarded bachelor’s degrees.

It seems to me that the name of the game with AI is that you need to know how to ask the right question.

So I think the question for philosophers and experts is: how do we teach moms to teach their kids to ask AI the right questions?

I find that AI is magnificent at answering my questions. But maybe that is because I am a dab hand at asking questions, from a lifetime of asking questions.

Whatabout kids? Seems to me that kids are notorious for asking questions of their parents, as in “Why?”

So maybe the solution to all our problems is to make sure that AI can deal with kids endlessly asking: “Why?”