<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 12:23 PM, Alan Kay <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:alan.nemo@yahoo.com">alan.nemo@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div>Hi Asaf<br><br>Among other things, our human brains are set up by nature to<br> -- take the world as it seems<br> -- want to learn the culture around us<br>
-- believe (and then try to justify our beliefs)<br> -- especially believe our tribes, from family outwards<br> -- think of most things in terms of stories<br> -- disappear our beliefs into a "normal" which makes it difficult to think in other terms<br>
-- desire explanations, but be satisfied with stories as answers</div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br>Early massive exposure to social media can reset some of these
defaults. The main change is the shift from THE culture to hundreds and
thousands of cultures, with corresponding meta-reflection on cultural
beliefs. Kids in their tween years and older, especially more
word-savvy girls, pick on differences in stories, worldviews and
beliefs of different cultures in different social sites. They are very
aware of differences in what is "normal" in different communities, and
of abilities of outsiders or enemies to deconstruct "mere stories" for
aggression (snark, flame wars) or simply for the fun of it. There are
sophisticated vocabularies supporting these endeavors, lists of
relevant concepts, acceptable and unacceptable argument techniques and
so on.<br><br><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div>We need something more like:<br><br>-- the world is not as it seems<br>-- our culture's views likely have nothing much to do with how the universe is set up<br>
-- think instead of believe<br>-- especially be careful of our tribal pulls to believe like them<br>-- most interesting things are not stories and can't be judged by story criteria<br>-- have to fight the invisibility of "normal"<br>
-- we need to be super tough about what we provisionally accept as explanations for anything<br><br>Most parents and teachers I've explained this to are shocked. It's so anti-social and rebellious! This is the last thing most
of them want to help their children achieve. (And they are so successful.)</div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br>People who grow up with assumed social pluralism won't be as shocked, though.
Science principles match the new social order of the "massively
multiplayer" community scene pretty well.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Maria Droujkova<br>
<br>
Make math your own, to make your own math.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.naturalmath.com">http://www.naturalmath.com</a> social math site<br>
<a href="http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/">http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/</a> Math 2.0 interest group <br></div></div>