AI Did the Heavy Lifting

I believe that we need to work backwards -- we start by looking at the result, what we want out of our students, and then we devise a curriculum and method of delivery which will (we hope) connect to some of the students, some of the time. What is that end result? Is it skills? Skills are attained faster and more consistently by AI. Memorization of facts? AI has a wonderful memory. Problem solving skills? AI can solve problems for us.

If AI can explain everything to us in a way that each of us can understand, then we can stop having a one-size-fits-all approach to schooling. We can take the notion of individualized instruction to the extreme!

[what follows is AI's revision of some mad thoughts I put together -- I thin kthe AI did fine so who needs to learn to write?]

Is any skill still valuable? If AI can now create what I would once have needed training to produce, what is the purpose of training me at all?

Human intelligence has a significant genetic component, but development is also shaped by experience. With individualized, self-directed education, people may grow into more authentic versions of themselves, because their learning paths follow their genuine interests.

Imagine a system where, from birth, a personalized learning platform accompanies a child. It observes the infant’s environment, records stimuli, tracks reactions, and gradually builds an understanding of the child’s preferences, responses, and developing abilities. Over time, this system becomes a lifelong tutor.

Using biometric cues—eye dilation, pulse responses, attention patterns, conversations—the tutor learns what engages the child. It then curates media and educational inputs matched to those interests. Standard curricula could be woven organically into the content the child naturally gravitates toward. The child still meets the Department of Education’s standards, but the path toward those standards is customized.

Instead of asking, “Why do I need to know this?” students would experience academic skills—communication, math, scientific thinking—as directly relevant to something they already care about. Their curiosity drives the learning. If a child becomes fascinated with a topic, the tutor can show that the next level of mathematics or literacy unlocks deeper understanding. The child begins to ask for increasingly complex material because it empowers him/her to explore what they already find meaningful.

Education then becomes both a reflection of a child’s emerging identity and a predictor of his or her future interests as an adult. This is home schooling, just at a socializing center.

Human teachers, in this scenario, shift roles. Instead of delivering standardized instruction, they act as facilitators of social interaction, collaboration, play, and emotional development. They create safe environments, help students work together, ensure healthy time away from screens, and guide activities that AI cannot replace.

Eventually, these tutors may even be able to connect students with others who share similar interests, habits, or learning profiles. With access to a broad network of data, the tutor could match individuals in ways that make collaboration and social learning more meaningful, personalized, and effective.

Expert Parenting

 I think that we must express appreciation -- we must say that public thank you to the forces that crafted us. I look at my children and I am amazed at the people they have become so I must say, loud and proud, a great big thank you to 

TELEVISION!

I have two kids (one, two). They are both Yids (one, two)

etc.

anyway, let's talk television and the skill of child rearing. It is essential that all young parents spend time with their television, currating channels and preferences so that when the children are left alone with the television, the television has the information it needs to raise the children in a proper manner. We decided, early on, that Law and Order would be our primary parenting aide, and the impact that that decision has had is palpable. One child went into crime fighting, focusing on sexual violence and criminal psychology. Money well spent (our cable bill, that is). She even met one of the stars of the show but had the good sense not to call Mariska Hargitay, "mom."

Then there's the other one. In a call this week, she mentioned that she was doing a bunch of cooking and one recipe called for a roux. She said that. In passing conversation. She used the word "roux" like it is a normal word to use in every day talk like "sanguine" or "undermine". I know that I cooked stuff as a youth and young man, but my recipe was (as per my DDDOD) "take the leftovers, take the schmaltz, mix it up, fry it and eat it." My child mentions off-handedly that she has to make a roux. For this, I credit the hard and consistent work of the Food Network. Good going guys! And in between cooking and baking shows, she was raised by Grey's Anatomy and now she is a nurse.

If only I had raised the children on TV shows about winning the lottery...

The End of the Age of Reality

 It has come to my attention that the age of reality has ended. No longer can we trust seeing to be an avenue towards belief. Our senses are just the next in a long line of things we can fool. Internet "intelligence" can now make a video with me as the star, delivering lines and executing flawless dance moves. But my dance moves in real life are flawed! That's what makes me, me.

You know how, in the sci fi movies, some gets "uploaded to the cloud"? That's happening now. You can take an untrained LLM, feed it on anything and everything you have written and it should then be able to answer questions and hold conversations using only your brain as the training material. Stick it with a voice cloning service and you can make a movie or a TED talk in which I present my actual points of view. The limit? AI can't capriciously change its mind, and the "me" online can't innovate new ideas and positions without running afoul of my actual (possibly irrational) positions on things.

But effectively, my identity can be cloned to the cloud (because I, possibly a poor example, tend to express myself in writing). But the bottom line is that we will be seeing movies with AI actors, hearing from celebrities long dead as they opine on current events and who knows what else. Just seeing something, or hearing it does not certify that anything is actual and extant. Our hold on reality, tenuous already, now gets thrown out of the window. We can have computers create pictures, videos, songs and anything else so our position as the arbiters of what is "real" and "true" is eroded by our quest for a lazy lifestyle in which a robot or computer does all the hard work.

It isn't a good thing, people!

Let's say you accuse me of something. How hard is it to mock up a supporting video? I can't make you believe I didn't do something so all you will have is my word against an actual video. Which have we been conditioned to believe? Let's go to the video tape.

I will take this lying down

and with a side of salt, please.

Many years ago, I was led to believe that one burns calories while one sleeps. In fact, I had an entire post about that exact claim!

https://rosends.blogspot.com/2011/12/calorie-recount.html

Yes, there it is, older than a lot of people.

Last night, as I was wandering around, looking for a hobby, I recalled that I had a digital scale which I bought for myself against sound medical advice. I disrobed (I had been wearing dis robe) and climbed aboard. The number that flashed at me was 187.6. That's respectable if my goal is to be 187.4. That, however, is not my goal. I generally don't have time to eat during the day so by just eating dinner, I aim to lose approximately one hundred and forty percent of my current weight. I am willing to compromise on the goal, but not eating seems to be one way to get there. I went to bed with a light heart because I knew that in the morning, after a rigorous night of restless legs and cold sweats, I would trim down even more. So when I finally worked up the courage to face the day, I leapt out of bed and strode to the scale. I rose up and took a look: 190.

190. That is, by my rough estimate, more than what I weighed before bed. Now, maybe I munched on some food, but this would mean I ate enough calories (and other measures of yumminess) to account for all my night burning, and add over 2 pounds to my "me." While I slept.

It seems the tooth fairy has teamed up with Mr. Sandman and the happy little elves to stuff me with food while I sleep. I can think of no other logical explanations. I don't "sleep eat" as that is ridiculous to consider. All that is left is the paranatural or the supernormal. I don't make the rules.

An Anti-Social experiment

Long time viewers know my stance on birthdays. I hate 'em and that's a fact. Now, new viewers can know as well. I hate birthdays. But for years, in an attempt to be connected socially with other humanz, I made sure to wish people a "happy birthday" on Facebook. FB does a nice job of listing people whose birthday it is, so wishing them good tidings etc. is pretty easy.

So I did it. For years, I wrote little messages and sent images of balloons and monkeys and whatnot. Sometimes I got a "thank you" and sometimes I felt included in a mass "thank you." But you know what, I decided to try something. I decided to stop wishing people a happy birthday on Facebook, just to see if it would make any difference in the world. I did (or didn't) do it for a year, giving each person the same opportunity to be ignored. Would this really cause any consequence? Does anyone really care?

Now, there is starving in Sudan so I might have to go back to saying Happy Birthday to people.

Thank me very much

I figure that, at this point in my career, I'm clearly never going to be someone's inspiration. No giver of life-changing advice or an unintentional pep talk from the heart, I'm not going to be the teacher named from the podium at some awards show as "the reason I became a ___________."

So in anticipation of this, I present my suggestion as to how I can be incorporated into a "thank you" speech, relying only on my continued mediocrity:

"I remember, I had a teacher...high school, I think it was...I forget his name but I know, and life has shown, that he had no specific negative impact on my growth, maturation and success. I am where I am today because had no effect on my life! Thank you for being irrelevant, Mr. Whatever-your-name-is!

Kintsugi-vision

I watch television a lot but not for the reason you think. I'm not sitting there letting it drive my consciousness like some sort of sheep. Instead, I am studying it because I care about understanding my world and watching major league kickball.

I have been thinking about TV shows and what it is I am actually watching. I think that the point of some shows is to highlight actions, and others highlight characters. I watch doctor shows not to learn medicine or even to watch my heroes save the day, taking some crazy risk or pulling out some unexpected diagnosis, but to see what my hero is like in his downtime.

Is he hurting? Does he mess up? Does he have fears? That's what make people, people. I can more closely relate to this character because of his fallibility -- it validates my own. And does that character persevere? In some way, he continues to wake up and live a life and that gives me hope that I can do something similar, as I am saddled with more limited challenges. That heroic behavior inspires me to be heroic and continue to live.

The (super)hero often becomes super (in attitude, action or something else) because of a human trauma. Maybe MY tragedy can ME better!

When the superhero is a boy scout in his down time then I'm bored. Let me see him stub his toe, or get the wrong order from that Chinese place, or lose his phone. Or job.

TV is the story of the golden glue, not the vase.