[ExI] AI harming humanity

[spike at rainier66.com]

...> On Behalf Of Dave S via extropy-chat

> 
>> On the contrary Dave. In about the past 10 years, cell phones in the
classroom have become universal. This has caused teachers to become so
well-behaved. ...

>...So you think that policing the expression of political beliefs should be
done by students...

The policing isn't done by students.  It is done by the internet.  The
students are merely providing much-needed transparency.  I see the last few
days as a glorious vindication of the notion of transparency, which we
should have in public school classrooms.  We the taxpayers are picking up
the bill for that, so we deserve to see what is going on there.  That isn't
private space, it's public.  People damn well are responsible for how they
carry themselves in public spaces, and those entrusted with children carry a
heavy burden of responsibility.  This is a good thing.  A video camera in
every pocket rips away privacy which is bad, but it has its benefits as
well.

Strict accountability is demanded of scout leaders, as it damn well should
be.  I extend that accountability concept to all adults who interact with
children, under all circumstances, including what goes on in the confession
booth at a church.

>...I think that's far less of a problem than basically every student being
distracted all the time in every class. School was bad enough in my day when
passing paper notes was one of the major distractions. With phones, students
can be chatting with anyone, any time. Or playing games, or ...

-Dave

_______________________________________________


Paper notes?  Luxury!  We had to chisel our notes on granite tablets!  They
were so hard to pass.

The distraction problem is very real, but not even a function of cell
phones.  The students have laptop computers on which they take notes.  So
ja, that is a known problem: they can zone out while appearing to be
present.  Teachers have a hard job these days.  

I will say however I have been brought in a guest lecturer for the calculus
class, and I had no trouble at all engaging the students: I got them to
interact with me enough to convince me that most were tuned in and turned
on, with few dropping out.  That might be a special-case class.

spike