[ExI] instilling ambition

Adrian Tymes atymes at gmail.com
Sat Jan 19 18:34:33 UTC 2013


On Sat, Jan 19, 2013 at 5:56 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:
> I think one good sign is the growth of the Maker movement: people taking
> charge over their material objects and learning to make or change things,
> write their own software and so on. That is an important mindset and
> something every parent should encourage in their kids (no matter what the
> danger is to their material possessions). But there might also be a need to
> encourage big thinking, to get people to realize that we do have the power
> to change the world by inventing new things that change the rules. 3D
> printers, home biohacking and being able to code is neat, but you should aim
> at changing manufacturing, invent new ways of coordinating people, or
> combine them with other things to make something totally unthinkable that
> forever change the world.

Start small.  People who are unused to dreaming *period*, aren't able to do
well at truly dreaming big before they get experience dreaming small.

Sure, they can imagine winning the lottery and getting a billion dollars.
And Then What?  There's a reason that most who win the lottery big time
blow through their winnings within a decade.  And sadly, things like that -
non-earned sudden wealth - are the only way most people can conceive of
getting the scale of power and capability that these technologies could
bring them.

Start them off on 3D printing, coding, and so on, and then they will start
to realize that they can change the world.  (It is very much like the old
folk tale of the magician's apprentice, when his mentor shows his hand
and asks the apprentice to pick the most magical finger - the correct
answer is the apprentice's own.  The first step to changing the world is
to realize that *you* can.)  Then introduce them to the larger concepts.



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