Man And Superman - The Future Of Education
Sramana Mitra
Founder and CEO of One Million by the One Million (1Mby1M) Global Virtual Accelerator
In the One Million by One Million online curriculum, almost eight years ago, I decided to put in a line as a joke: “We’re working on a chip that can be implanted in your brain and it will transfer ALL the entrepreneurial knowledge from my brain to yours. However, this chip is not quite ready yet. So, in the meantime, please study the curriculum and learn the methodology of entrepreneurship that we have designed.”
Well, little did I know that this would cease to be a joke by 2018.
In fact, in the next decade or two, perhaps, this sort of implant will become the future of education.
Today, if you want to become a Computer Scientist, you go to university and get trained in Algorithms, Data Structures, Computer Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, etc. You learn a set of programming languages. You learn how to debug your code. You learn how to architect a system. So on and so forth.
Or, you can also take those courses from a MOOC like EdX or Coursera, and take advantage of the possibilities offered by online learning.
To become a doctor, you go to Medical School.
To learn business, you go to Business School.
But in the world that we are resolutely marching towards, this may very well cease to be how education is imparted. Education may become a surgical implant, rather than something acquired through many years of rigorous toil.
Education, thus, may neutralize the advantages enjoyed today by high IQ individuals, and make it possible for everyone to be extraordinarily knowledgeable in his or her chosen field or fields.
With one custom, highly personalized implant, you could be speaking five languages, have mastery over the entire field of medicine (not just specialized disciplines like Endocrinology or Pediatrics), and be able to play concert level violin by the age of eighteen.
Yes, I am talking about a world where Man and Machine fuse to create Superman out of every individual.
That, I think, is where we are headed.
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Head of Digital Teaching and Learning at Mill Hill International
6yI teach in the field of IT and Computer Science, and this idea of human-machine fusion (and, ultimately, the sort of Singularity that Ray Kurzweil talks about) is certainly theoretically possibly. I do wonder, however, if we are not being a bit reductionist in our approach to what constitutes education. Some of the best teaching moments I have ever experienced have involved students who have experienced the 'flash bulb' eureka moment with a piece of coding, or with grasping binary-hex conversion (yes really), or something else that they have really had to work hard mentally to process. The achievement of getting to the point is, I would argue, and as much emotional as it is simply the acquisition of 'knowledge'. So what will we miss as human beings if we can simply implant knowledge instantly into the brain?
Area Vice President Oncology
6yThis is very Black Mirror.
Machine Learning Scientist | Drug discovery | Georgia Tech CS
6yIf this happens in the future , the metrics for 'Super' would change. Skills such as Emotinal Intelligence and leadership which could not be imparted through theory only acquired would become more valuable . More than that , the ability to think innovatively and creatively would still be the most desirable skill as that cant be transferred via any chip
Manager Pilot School Applications
6ySounds crazy, but I think, anything what humans can do, will be done in the next future. I’m not sure if this will be the correct way, but the future will give the answers.
Front End Developer | Javascript | CSS | React | NodeJS
6yWe define a person as Super when he is able to do things which are above and beyond everyone else's potential. If such surgical implants happen then how do we define a person as Superman? Every millionaire will be a superman, every Billionaire will be a bigger Superman and so on...