I dislike writing a bio or cv as it reminds me of how little I contributed to the world. I never excelled at school for the simple reason that it bored me to no ends. The classes I was good at where to easy and the ones that where hard simply didn't interest me enough to be worth my time. But instead that they allowed me to go on above the grades average in the subjects I was good in and enjoyed they told me to actually stop so that I would not get too far head of the rest of the class. I think I was 13 or 14 at the time and even though I was unaware this was not just my problem but something the entire world suffers from I slowed down and just did enough to pass. I think this is where my interest in education and how to improve it but also sociology and how we define ourselves, others and the masses and what we could do in order to change the world for the better. But, sadly, you need to excel in every subject in order to get in a university and at the time I simply didn't have it in me to study something that I found irrelevant and boring to what I wanted to achieve. It's remarkable that the choices you make when your 14 set you up for life and even if people see you can do more they rarely care or they tell you but don't have the resources to actually do something about it. I would love to spend the upcoming years learning more about social aspects of our society and help to improve it. Yet I'm stuck and forced to doing do - in my opinion - trivial and useless jobs of which most can be replaced by machines just so I can pay my bills. The really sad thing is that I'm not the only one and I believe that everyone should have the chance to do what they enjoy en excel at.
Making life better for everyone.
I believe that in order to give our children an good feature we have to make our changes now. It really pains me to see how little we really accomplished as the human race. Our economy is a mess that can only survive with infinite growth, our education focuses on the average student this while every person is different and should be treated as such. I may only be 28 now and I have no children of my own but still I don't want to pass this mess on to the next generation. I have the utmost respect for all the people around the world trying to make it a better place but in my opinion the only way to make a long and lasting difference is by guiding the public in the only way we know works. This is sadly without them knowing them, for this reason I would love to indulge myself in sociology and find ways to guide the masses towards a better life for everyone. The only thing left for me is to find a way to make that possible.
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A comment on Talk: Keith Chen: Could your language affect your ability to save money?
I wonder if that is the reason why they are "pushing" the English language in the western world?
Less saving equals more spending and that is perfect for an economy that is based on consumption.
A comment on Talk: Colin Stokes: How movies teach manhood
The first one is called "Spirited Away" an animated movie made by the Japanese studio Ghibli.
Studio Ghibli can somewhat be seen as the Disney of Japan. But unlike Disney or Pixar they actually have a lot of Wizard of Oz type of movies of which many have female protagonist.
I highly recommend you check out their work most of the movies have been released in the US and have english voices.
Spirited Away - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429/
The Secret World of Arrietty - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568921/
Kiki`s Delivery Service - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097814/
My Neighbor Totoro - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096283/
And my personal favorite even though it has a young male protagonist:
How's moving castle - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347149
A comment on Talk: Jonathan Haidt: How common threats can make common (political) ground
First major and global issue is the difference in wealth.
If we can somehow resolve this issue the others become relatively easy.
Wealth is somewhat unique as it's one of the few groups that spans all continents, all cultures and all religions.
If you have a lot of money people don't care where you're from or which deity you pray to. They already resolved all those 4 issues by uniting as one group "the rich".
I believe it also works the other way around and if we can distribute wealth more evenly among the world population the other issues will become less severe. With more distributed wealth the quality of education will rise and the other issues will have more educated minds to further resolve them.
Sadly I do not believe that the 25% is going to so willingly.
Even though I hate to say it and as inhumane as it may sound our common enemy should be the filthy rich and we should treat them as such. They are by far the worst terrorist this world has ever seen.
A comment on Conversation: Should we teach our kids about how advertisement (public relationships, marketing) works?
No commercials, no state controlled news, no bullshit programs and no MTV.
If want something I don't need an commercial to tell me so. I'am more then capable of deciding that for myself.
If I want to read/watch the news I have access to the internet.
I have 0 interest in the latest cooking shows, decorate my house or dancing with the stars bullshit.
And when/if I get kids I refuse to expose them to such things.
As compensation I'll buy or download all the good old shows for kids their age that do have educational value and adhere my moral values.
A comment on Talk: Faith Jegede: What I’ve learned from my autistic brothers
I've struggled with similar things her brothers have. I have been diagnosed with Dyslexia, ADD and Autism (in that order) and that has made my life extremely hard at times.
But I was one of the lucky people. I have great parents that support me and a big group of great friends.
Yes I'm different and you know what? If I could take a pill and make all go away I would tell them to shove it up their.. you know :)
It hasn't made my life easy but it made me me and I'm happy with who I am.
So next time you come across someone that seems a bit odd don't turn away but talk to them. They are often the most amazing, creative, caring and beautiful people you will meet in your life.
A comment on Conversation: Debate: Should students rely on technology for their homework?
Until a student needs to choose his career the only function of technology should be to stimulate learning and not to make it easier. So no calculators or looking things up on the internet, besides this shouldn't be necessary at this level.
Teachers and parents should regularly have discussed the goals, wishes and dreams of each student giving them the best tools to pick a school that fits them. At this point the young student should already be aware of what classes are core to his goals and which are secondary .
Once the student starts at his new school the teacher there should also sit down with him and his parents and go over his goals, wishes and dreams again after this it's up to the teacher/school to allow the student to focus on his core subjects where there should be no limit to what level the student can follow (unless it goes over the capability of the school at this point private tutoring for this subject is a good option). The level of secondary subjects should be adapted to the students ability but are expected to generally lower level and should be there to give the student a good all-round education.
Now to get to the point.
Students should not be allowed to use any technology to make it easier to pass his core skills. So if one of the core skills is math it means no calculator. But if English is not a core but secondary subject the student should be allowed to look words up.
A comment on Talk: Rory Stewart: Why democracy matters
Besides corruption and different goals I believe the largest we are making is giving people one equal vote.
Of course everyone should play part in the decisions made in a country but your average Joe doesn't have the knowledge and/or the information to make decisions about global economy changes, changes in laws or if we should start a war.
They just vote on gut instinct without being properly informed. This is the first and most important step in order to make democracy work. Every single person should have easy and quick access to all of the information within the government such as but not limited to:
- All statics and analytic information including what organisation provided them.
- Any official document without censorship.
- The freedom to attend any meeting. All the agenda's should be freely available.
- Access to libraries should be free for anyone.
- Any and all expenses should be public.
- Any company that provides information or a service to the country needs to uphold the above rules.
The second step is something I believe is finally possible trough our technology and that is to create a voting system that allows everyone to vote on any subject/project/decision within the country.
I have an idea that I visualize a bit like an open pyramid where all the countries plans, projects and decisions are tracked. Every individual is allowed to vote on any of these subjects and depending on their education level and specialization, work (not income), location, home situation their votes will have different value's depending on the topic. Another function of the system is to allow everyone to bring idea's to the table regardless of their background and it will depend on the votes of others if that idea is adopted or expanded upon.
A reply on Conversation: What experiences have made you more comfortable with mental health disorders?
If you look deep down into it we are really not that far from machines. Our bodies may be of flesh and blood but our brains are basically computers and are run on electricity just as our technology.
Just think,
What is the one major flaw of a robot with an A.I.? It can't reproduce.
Sure you can copy an A.I. but a copy is just an copy a single virus could wipe out an entire set. So in order to resolve this we do two simple things:
- Add a maximum lifespan. You could do this by replacing metal by flesh for example.
- The ability to take core "settings" or genes and share/mix them with another body. Then you basically have sex.
And there you have it an machine race with a limit lifespan but with the ability to strengthen itself by reproducing. The strongest (read: most efficient in its environment) will reproduce more often creating a stronger offspring.
It's a pretty good system. Ohh, right what makes us human? No clue :)
A reply on Conversation: Debate: Is corruption a moral or a legal issue?
I read the essay you suggested and it points out the same "findings" I hear when other people try to explain corruption or greed.
Especially the first part is interesting:
"Human desire manifests itself in different forms but the driving force is the same. It is power, fame and money and ultimately, all these boil down to the desire for control. Some call it an ego trip. "
What I believe is that power, fame and money are not the driving force but something deeper down inside of us. No one is born with a drive for power, fame or money this is something we learn along the way from our parents and our society.
The core driving force for corruption is the same primal force for both the people in power and the ones without it.
This force is fear.
The poor and powerless look up towards the rich and powerful and strive to get the same with the fear they will otherwise remain where they are now.
But the rich and powerful don't have it easy either. The look down towards the poor and powerless and strive to never end up there. Driven by fear of losing what they have they will be open for corruption and because they are more powerful and wealthy their corruption is much more noticeable on a global scale.
If we truly want to stop corruption we have to close the gap between the poor, powerless and the rich and powerful.
A good start in my opinion would be to start focusing on providing high quality food, housing and healthcare for everyone for free. We have the technology to make this possible we just have to use it.
I do admit we still have a long way to go before this is possible though. A great start in my opinion would be to do away with patents as a whole. Technology should be our goal not money, power or fame.
A comment on Conversation: Debate: Is corruption a moral or a legal issue?
People fear losing wealth, power or social status and the more they have to it the more they are willing to do to keep it.
There is actually a fairly easy solution to this problem and that is to bring the rest of society up to the same level of wealth and power. Of course this is easier said then done.
When everyone is equal by definition corruption can't exist as the highest level of status is also the lowest level of status. This also solves the problem of people trying to get higher up over the backs of others as there is no higher up.
I believe the human race is capable of this but we really need to start working on changing our society in order to make it possible.