THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS

TEiP DEEP 19

IGUANA

SPOILER ALERT

Here is the Thought Experiment that we’ll discuss at TEiP DEEP.

It is broken into three chapters.

I recommend waiting to read the chapters sequentially at the event

…but if you’d like to know what they are ahead of time, here you go… :-)

CHAPTER 1

Maria has a skill for writing letters to people in high places.

She was lucky that the first famous person she wrote to wrote back, thougthfully.

It was when she was at school. Her teacher encouraged her and a few classmates to write to Kurt Vonnegut.

Vonnegut replied with advice that changed her life:

“Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta:

I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.

What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you’re Count Dracula.

Here’s an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?

Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash receptacles. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow.

God bless you all!

Kurt Vonnegut” (Vonnegut, 2006)

Maria, now a teacher herself, wants to pay this forward. She wants to bring older, more experienced voices and wisdom into education.

One of her ideas is to set up a pen pal system between successful artists (authors, actors, painters, journalists, etc.) and schoolchildren. She believes that both parties will benefit out of this: the “really old geezers” and the fresh new minds of the next generation.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

What do you think of Maria’s idea?
Should we value wisdom more highly in education?
What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge/intelligence?
What do you think of Vonnegut’s advice? Would you have appreciated this as a child/teen? Would it have resonated?

Vonnegut, Kurt. (2006) “‘Make Your Soul Grow.’” Edited by Shaun Usher, Letters of Note, Letters of Note, 5 Nov. 2021, news.lettersofnote.com/p/make-your-soul-grow.

CHAPTER 2

Maria wrote a blog about her idea and it was picked up by Mitch, a researcher at THE EDUCATION REVOLUTION.

Mitch emails Maria:

Dear Maria,

I absolutely love your recent blog about bringing more ‘wisdom’ and intergenerational connection into education.

I am writing on behalf of THE EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION, a project to rethink and improve the way we educate the next generation.

All we have at the moment is funding and a blank page. But we do have a LOT of funding.

Our funders are anonymous billionaires, who have decided they want no bearing upon the way the revolution unfolds. They state:

“We do not want to bend education towards our values, we just want to improve it. This is why we are anonymous.This is why we’ve chosen a panel of ‘normal people’ to vote on the ideas our researchers come up with.”

We’d like to propose a spin off of your idea at our next pitch to the panel. What do you think?

Sincerely,

Mitch

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

What do you think of the EDUCATION REVOLUTION’s aims?
How do you feel about existing education systems? Do you think they need revolutionizing?
What ideas might you, personally, propose?
What might be lost from existing education systems if they were abandoned and rethought?
How do you think this so-called panel of ‘normal people’ might vote? Is this a good way to make decisions for the future of education? What might be a better way?

CHAPTER 3

Maria’s idea has made it to the final round, though it has evolved a bit along the way…

It is now called ELDER MENTOR

Instead of a pen pal system, it is now proposed that individual learners will be apprenticed to willing elders for 6 months, to benefit from their experience and presence.

There are willing elders from many different sectors. People who have had careers at the forefront of science, technology, engineering, art, medicine, architecture, politics, etc….

For example, the list of participating ‘MASTERS OF ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT’ includes:

Judi Dench - multi-award winning actress

Mick Jagger & Keith Richards - co-founders of the Rolling Stones

Dolly Parton - Icon, singer, songwriter, philanthropist

David Attenborough - famous naturalist, broadcaster, advocate

JK Rowling - one of the world’s most successful writers

David Hockney - pioneering and celebrated visual artist

Patti LuPone - the “Last Broad of Broadway”

The other finalist idea is: TEACHER CREATURE

This involves the most powerful AI systems in existence combining and working to give individual students as comprehensive an education as possible. The AI will tailor its approach to the child’s individual learning style, interests, and needs.

It will be embodied in a robotic shell, so as to exist in the physical world. It will have a voice, and the means by which to move around with the child.

Inspired by The Northern Lights, the TEACHER CREATURE will take the form of an animal that encapsulates the child’s spirit in some way. It will stay with them all the time, imparting the collective wisdom of humanity as it goes.

The prototype TEACHER CREATURE takes the form of an iguana.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

As a ‘normal person’ on the panel, which idea would you pick for development: ELDER MENTOR or TEACHER CREATURE?
Which idea would you pick as a parent? As a student? As a politician?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each idea?
What are the ethical concerns of each idea?

SOURCES:

BA, THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS Group Member.

Vonnegut, Kurt. “‘Make Your Soul Grow.’” Edited by Shaun Usher, Letters of Note, Letters of Note, 5 Nov. 2021, news.lettersofnote.com/p/make-your-soul-grow.