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15 Technologies That Were Supposed to Change Education Forever

Every generation has its shiny new technology that’s supposed to change education forever. In the 1920s it was radio books. In the 1930s it was television lectures. Here in the second decade of the 21st century, it seems the Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) is the education tech of tomorrow. Let’s hope it pans out better than previous attempts.

Today we take a look back at 15 technologies that were supposed to radically change the way that people are educated around the world. Some innovations were mostly hype. Others had an undeniably meaningful impact.

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I don’t consider myself as someone with nostalgia for the past. Certainly the past is fascinating and worth studying – historically, archaeologically, astronomically, etc. – but I don’t consider it worth pursuing again, all while abandoning everything we’ve achieved thus far. I reach to the stars, though keep a distant memory of what I’ve learned in the past.

One of my fears, however, as we continue journeying into the exponentially brightening light of the future, is that we – as a global, interconnected community – lose sight of the reasoning why we’ve taken up the future rather than the past. I advocate abandoning neither the future, nor the past. Reason being because the past plays an important role in shaping our future. We lose sight of the past, we may just lose sight of our present and future.

While I fear I may be at err for quoting such a dooms-dayer publication, George Orwell’s famous book Nineteen Eighty Four teaches the lesson, “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” Orwell is the last person I’d prefer learning lessons from, but in this respect he’s correct.

I am a Transhumanist. My goal of the future is an enhanced one, where our species transcend their biological limitations by evolving via science and technology. I consider Luddism, Malthusianism, Nihilism, Primitivism and Religious Fundamentalism as a direct enemy to the Transhumanist cause – an enemy of the future, not to mention the present day.

However, I believe their preference for nature and the past isn’t completely miscue. The past, as I’ve said before, plays an important role in our future, just as I’d argue that nature plays a subsequent role as well.

I’d argue that the nostalgia for the past in which Luddites, Primitivists, etc. have is the direct result of a misinformed understanding of what the past truly was like, thus a lack of appreciation in how the present science and technology helped us become a smarter, healthier and safer peoples.

This is why I fear what I fear – I fear of our people losing their way as Luddites, Primitivists, etc. have in the past and present. In consequence, we start deluding ourselves of a misguided future inspired from a phony past. As we continue pressing forward in developing a bright future with the help of science and technology, we should also dedicate some time in stopping what we’re doing, to look and think back, and to ensure ourselves that we’re not making mistakes we’d committed beforehand.

What I propose is something similar to what Muslims of the Islamic faith practice every year throughout the world – they call it Ramadan. Let me first explain that I am not religious whatsoever. I just happen to be friends with several Muslims and know first hand how happy they are once their month-long fasting is complete. You could say they even grow a higher appreciation of what they have as a result of temporarily letting it all go for this event of theirs.

A month long fasting? Surely they wouldn’t survive not eating and drinking liquids for an entire month! To which you’re correct. It’s not entirely a month long. In reality, Ramadan adheres to certain regulations, such as:

  • Just before dawn they have a pre-fast meal, known as suhoor;
  • Just after sunset they have a fast-breaking meal, known as iftar; and
  • If you are ill, pregnant, a diabetic, etc., then the month long fasting is not required.

Understand, I am not advocating that Transhumanists stop eating, though I hear the biohacker community have a certain fascination for what is known as intermittent fasting. What I am advocating here is a time of the year we take a step back and look at everything we’ve accomplished and for what reasons. For the Muslim community, Ramadan plays the role of relaxation, remembering all that they acquire, and an understanding for those who may be less fortunate.

For the Muslim community, letting go of their food for a month, which they work hard for and thrive on, is their means of gathering a greater perspective on why they are as they are today. It’s also, of course, a way of temporarily letting go of materialist desires, which in turn helps them sympathize with those less fortunate and subsequently look out for them more often.

For us, as Transhumanists, our means of thriving isn’t so much food than it is our scientific endeavors and technological developments. While I wouldn’t go so far as recommending an entire month of temporarily letting go of our scientific projects, technology, etc., it also wouldn’t hurt us to at least dedicate a day, or a week, away from it all.

Back in early October of last year, Kris Notaro, who is the Managing Director of the nonprofit think-tank Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, decided to go on a week long techno-fasting. To simply get away from it all…temporarily, of course. At first I found this amusing, poking fun at it, sending him an image-based observation of how his techno-fasting will go.

The more I think about it, though, the more I then realize how we were both correct! He had every right in dedicating a week off from everything, to sit back and really take in perspective of it all. Just as I feel I’m correct that the techno-empowering feeling would be what you’d succumb to as a result.

For Muslims, eating little as they once did many years ago enhances their appreciation of what they now have in contrast to what they didn’t have beforehand. I believe we could achieve a similar feat by temporarily limiting, if not completely withholding, ourselves from the science and technology we thrive on.

A day, or a week, where we don’t use the technology we take for granted today would, in my opinion, enhance our appreciation for said technology, and possibly even enhance our ambitions through a greater understanding of what it was like before science and technology came to our aid. Maybe a month away from it all wouldn’t be a bad idea either!? Not as a means of showing us how great the past was, but quite the contrary – in retrospect, we’d come to remind ourselves why we’re doing what we’re doing and why the past isn’t something we should have misguided nostalgia over.

There are reasons why we stopped going bare feet in favor of shoes; there are reasons why we abandoned primitive herbal alternative meds for real, evidence-based medication and healthcare; there are reasons why we abandoned the typewriter for the keyboard; snail mail for email; corded phones for cellphones and Skype; etc. etc. etc.

To lose perspective of why we did what we did could result in everything we despise – misguided tendencies of nostalgia for the past, adhering to both the naturalistic fallacy and appeal to nature.

So I propose a techno-ramadan! A time each year that we all simply let go of it all and really breathe in, per se, everything we’ve done, are doing, and going to do; a time of deep meditation and reflection – Buddhist cyborgs! Perhaps then we could achieve what our enemies have failed in – a true understanding of the past, present, and future, insofar as we learn from and enhance our lessons of the past to ensure a much brighter Transhumanist future.

The article above was originally published as a blog post on The Proactionary Transhumanist, and subsequently re-published on the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

Overmanagement by Mr. Andres Agostini

NATGEO   NASA
This is an excerpt from the conclusion section o, “…Overmanagement…,” that discusses some management strategies. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

BEGINNING OF EXCERPT.

Question: What other contemporary issues particularly concern you? Do you find signs of
hope or resistance around these issues that, perhaps, you finding heartening?

Well, we can make a long list, including the things we’ve talked about, but it’s also worth
remembering that, hovering over the things we discussed, are two major problems. These
are issues that seriously threaten the possibility of decent human survival. One of them is
the growing threat of environmental catastrophe, which we are racing towards as if we
were determined to fall off a precipice, and the other is the threat of nuclear war, which
has not declined, in fact it’s very serious and in many respects is growing. The second one
we know, at least in principle, how to deal with it. There is a way of significantly reducing
that threat; the methods are not being pursued but we know what they are. In the case of
environmental catastrophe it’s not so clear that there will even be a way to control of
maybe reverse it. Maybe. But, the longer we wait, the more we defer taking measures, the
worse it’s going to be.

It’s quite striking to see that those in the lead of trying to do something about this
catastrophe are what we call “primitive” societies. The first nations in Canada, indigenous
societies in central America, aboriginals in Australia. They’ve been on the forefront of
trying to prevent the disaster that we’re rushing towards. It’s beyond irony that the richest
most powerful countries in the world are racing towards disaster while the so-called
primitive societies are the ones in the forefront of trying to avert it.

END OF EXCERPT.

Please see the full article at http://lnkd.in/bYP2nDC

Kelsey D. Atherton — Popular Science

Consider it a rough Audubon guide to the mechanical fauna of battlefields. Created by Amsterdam-based designer Ruben Pater, the Drone Survival Guide is, on one side, a rough bird watcher’s guide to the modern robot at war. The other side is a short section of printed survival tips, and the guides are available in Pashto, Dutch, German, Italian, Indonesian, Arabic, and English.

The selection of drones included in the guide leads heavily towards those from NATO member countries, with the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States all represented, as well as NATO itself, for the other member countries that use these drones. Partly because those are the countries that have used drones, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the most, but partly because they are just the countries where it is easier to get information about the scale and wingspan of their flying robots.

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CINCINNATI (AP) — Some Ohio schools are preparing students for a boom in the drone industry once the federal government, as is expected, allows civilian unmanned aircraft to fly in U.S. airspace.

The Federal Aviation Administration estimates as many as 7,500 commercial drones could be flying in national airspace within a few years, and has until 2015 to present a plan for safely integrating drones into U.S. airspace.

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Transleadership! By Mr. Andres Agostini

TRANSLEADERSHIP
This is an excerpt from the conclusion section of, “…Transleadership!…” that discusses some management, leadership and futurism theories and practices and strategies.

To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

EXCERPT. Ensuing:

(…SUMMATION OF WHAT A TRANSLEADERSHIP LEADER DOES AND IS …)

# 1 – Is An Actionable Statesman.

# 2 – Thoroughly moral and ethical in deed and spontaneously projected example.

# 3 – Happily located and navigating through Century 21.

# 4 – By far, focused on solid and increasing education and perpetual mind expansion, chiefly those acquired by solving truly complex problems systematically.

# 5 – Self-Pedagogue forever. Teaches to self-tech to his / her crew for Life.

# 6 – Leads, Co-Leads, Follows, Co-Follows, Executes, Co-Executes, Builds, Co-Builds, Envisions, Co-Envisions, Paves and Co-Paves Never-Thought-Of Pathways.

# 7 – Intuitive, Counterintuitive, and seamlessly blends both of the above.

# 8 – Takes all – encompassing curiosity as it is operated in real time – beyond known and unknown extremes.

# 9 – Makes every mistake – own or that of the competitor – into his / her won victory.

# 10 – Doesn’t care how fluid and amorphous the limits, contexts and the dynamics of his / her blurred theater of operations are.

# 11 – Can strategize and prevail through many operational frameworks at once without getting bewildered.

# 12 – Challenges every assumption, doctrine and dogma ruthlessly and relentlessly, beginning with his / her own ones.

# 13 – Learns something practical, meaningful, and decisively productive every day.

# 14 – Heightens crew’s sense of urgency and of focus.

# 15 – Re-adapts and re-invents resiliently and effortlessly regardless of whatever constraints and increasing pressures stemming from the frame of reference.

# 16 – Operates multidimensionally and cross-functionally.

# 17 – Constantly and boldly sets pre-conditions to maximize the likelihood of his / her triumphs.

# 18 – Always selects and develops his / her leadership constituency.

# 19 – Creates and applies his / her own – along with that of the team – body of knowledge.

# 20 – Does never ever institute “best practices,” but UNIQUE, premium-graded approaches.

# 21 – Carries on much swifter that “life cycles” intrinsic to products, services, challenges, and complex problem solving.

# 22 – Does not get concerned about his / her adversaries since the uniqueness and ever-upgrading quality of tactics, strategies and stratagems as applied.

# 23 – Harmonizes issues immediately.

# 24 – His / her leadership is always (and robustly so) linked to concrete and unambiguous objective and goals.

# 25 – Always updates his methods, approaches, techniques, tactics, strategies, especially using those that are extraneous to so-called and already disrupted “history.” (Which one, that wrote by winners or that stated by losers or that always failing to have sufficient objectivity?)

# 26 – Continuously learns lessons – and improves those – both from incurred mistakes and from captured successes.

# 27 – Extracts information and knowledge – to be shared and brainstormed with the crew – out of everything done, thought, as well as to be executed regardless of the incumbent.

# 28 – Wins only based on merit, principle, legitimacy and lawfulness.

# 29 – Strategizes the granularity of detail of everything. There is no such a thing as a leader that is not a strategist and visionary.

# 30 – Embraces leading-edge (even weird) science and its stemming technological derivatives immediately.

# 31 – Enjoys phenomena and prevails as he / she navigates through said phenomena.

# 32 – Is never commonsensical and always challenging long-held assumptions as he / she institutes the most unorthodox and exuberant novel practices (lavishly so).

# 33 – De-tools, tools, re-tools the amplification of the individual and collective intelligence within his / her crew.

# 34 – Instills how to operate autonomously and jointly – in pursuit of the same goals and objectives – to his / her followers and co-leaders.

# 35 – Learns from his / her mistakes, but empathizes to learn also from the mistakes of others.

# 36 – Fluidly shares experience and practical knowledge across every incumbent in the crew.

# 37 – Only thinks and performs a la unthinkable thinking.

# 38 – Disrupt the boundaries of unthinkable thinking, always going beyond such boundaries.

# 39 – Transforms new problems and old problems into actionable breakthrough opportunities.

# 40 – In his / her case and exercising this type of leadership, strongly and coherently insists on and applies three aspects: CIVILITY, CIVILITY, CIVILITY!

# 41 – Before chaos, he / she instills more and more chaos – of greater magnitude, scale and speed – to level off and outsmart the frame of reference targeted.

# 42 – Drives OPS with directness and / or indirectness, as well as with the loose/control hybridization mode.

# 43 – Shares of defined values

# 44 – Elicits conceptions of practiced futures to deal with and countermeasure way in advance.

# 45 – Fuses technology innovation with business strategy as a tool for competitive advantage.

# 46 – Conceives early and distinguishes it and exploits it strategic surprises attributable to competitors.

# 47 – Ascertains that there is not a single stone left unturned.

END OF EXCERPT.

Please see the entire presentation at http://lnkd.in/dP2PmCP

Superslide. By Mr. Andres Agostini
SYNAPSE
This is an excerpt from the conclusion section of, “…Superslide (…A Three-Meter Slide).…” that discusses some management and futurism theories and practices. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

EXCERPT. Ensuing:

“…Jeff Immelt realizes that the world changes every day and that his job is to keep GE competitive in that changing world. But his ability to take the company where it needs to go is greatly facilitated by the fact that he has a clear understanding of where he is starting…”

“…Stewart’s ranking reflects a massive movement underway to actually measure intellectual capital … The concept is correct and we put Stewart’s work right at the front … to reinforce the importance for companies to continue defining, measuring and improving ways of generating new intellectual capital … Teaching Organizations are the needed response to today’s emphasis on knowledge creation. Today, intellectual assets trump physical assets in nearly every industry.…”

“…Despite the boom and bust of the recent dot-bomb era, there is no question that we are in the early stages of an era in which technology and biotechnology will have inescapable consequences for how businesses are run and organized. The practices, systems, policies and mind-sets that prevailed in the old industrial economy will not do the job. The foregone conclusion of the late 1990s that the old industrial behemoths would be agile start-ups is equally wrong for the times.…”

“…Rather, we now know that the winners of the future will adapt and innovate to exploit emerging technological and social changes. They will be big, fast, and smart. The winners will create value by having a workforce that is more aligned, energized and smarter than their competitors. They will leverage size and act with speed across internal and external organizational boundaries.…”

END OF EXCERPT.

Please see the entire presentation at http://lnkd.in/dGjf3mm

Trends Vs. Dynamic Driving Forces! By Mr. Andres Agostini

1

(Trends Vs. Dynamic Driving Forces, A Clarity-Driven Pathway Before A Universal Management and Scientific Blunder!).

This is an excerpt from the conclusion section of, “…Trends Vs. Dynamic Driving Forces…” that discusses some management and futurism theories and practices. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

2
EXCERPT. Ensuing:

“…If you like where events seem to be headed, you may want to take timely action to preserve their positive trajectory. If you do not like where they appear to be going, you will have to develop and implement policies to change their trajectory…”

3
Futurology is the “…study or forecasting of potential developments, as in science, technology, and society, using current conditions and trends as a point of departure…”

4
“…The goal here [in the beginning of the third millennium] is to understand the enablers [the driving forces out of which some futurists comfortably depict so-called ‘trends’] for change [potential upsides] as well as the barriers [imminent downsides]…”

5
“…The law is recognizing the trend toward complexity of life and the inability of the average person to recognize and overcome risks associated with it … Whereas our forefathers could knowingly inspect the horseshoes a blacksmith nailed on their horses’ hoofs, the average person today cannot knowledgeably inspect a microwave oven or a car’s automatic transmission.…”

6
”…Welcome to the New Future. How are you going to cope with the most challenging business changes you have ever faced? What are the top trends you must know about today? How can you better plan for the future? The Institute for Global Futures provides an analysis of the top trends, scenarios and strategies that will shape the future of your enterprise. Whether that future is one minute or one year from today you need to be prepared to face the future challenges and risks.…”

7
END OF EXCERPT.

z

Please see the entire presentation at http://lnkd.in/dC5qvcb

Superintelligence! By Mr. Andres Agostini
BRAIN0

This is an excerpt from the conclusion section of, “…Superintelligence…” that discusses some management theories and practices. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:
BRAIN
EXCERPT.

How do I exercise my mind? What types of thinking modes I daily use?

BRAIN31. “Einsteinian Gedanke” Thinking
2. “Post Mortem” Thinking
3. “Pre Mortem” Thinking
4. “Short-Term and Long-Term” Thinking
5. “Terra Incognita” Thinking
6. “A Cappella” Thinking
7. “À la Quantum Mechanics” Thinking
8. “A Posteriori” Thinking
9. “A Priori” Thinking
10. “Against Fashionable” Thinking
11. “Against Inexpensive” Thinking
12. “Against Sloppy, Emotional” Thinking
13. “Against the whole cliche of the moment” Thinking
14. “Alpha and Omega” Thinking
15. “Applied Omniscience Knowledge” Thinking
16. “Continuous Improvement and Innovation” Thinking
17. “Edisonian Research” Thinking
18. “Over-Hauled Re-Engineering” Thinking
19. “Primum nocere” Thinking
20. “Primum non nocere” Thinking
21. “Rara Avis” Thinking
22. “Support Learning and Change” Thinking
23. A Radical yet Rigorous Strong-Sense and Critico-Creative
24. Aggregated Thinking
25. Alternatives-Exploring Thinking
26. Black-and-White Thinking
27. Bottom-Up Thinking
28. Cognitive Thinking
29. Composite Thinking
30. Compounded Thinking
31. Comprehensive Thinking
32. Cosmological Thinking
33. Counter-Cognitive Thinking
34. Counter-envisioning Thinking
35. Countering Thinking
36. Counter-intuitive Thinking
37. Counter-Intuitiveness Thinking
38. Countermeassuring Thinking
39. Counter-seeing Thinking
40. Cradle-to-grave Thinking
41. Cross-functional Thinking
42. Cross-pollinated Thinking
43. Cross-Referenced Thinking
44. Cybered Thinking
45. Cyber-Enabled Thinking
46. Deep Thinking
47. Dense Thinking
48. Discontinuous-Progression Thinking
49. Discoverer’s Thinking
50. Early-On Thinking
51. Easternized Thinking
52. Ecological Thinking
53. Engineering Thinking
54. Entomological Thinking
55. Epicentric Thinking
56. Epidemiological Thinking
57. Ex-ante Thinking
58. Exploratory Thinking
59. Exuberant Thinking
60. Factory Thinking
61. Forensic Thinking
62. Forethought Thinking
63. Forward Thinking
64. Futures Thinking
65. Futures Thinking
66. Fuzzy-Logic Thinking
67. Generative Thinking
68. Gestalt Thinking
69. Governed Thinking
70. GPS Thinking
71. Gray-areas Thinking
72. Harmonic Thinking
73. Helicopter Thinking
74. Heterodox Thinking
75. Heterodox Thinking
76. Hindsight Thinking
77. Holistic Thinking
78. Holistic Thinking
79. Horse-Seeing Thinking
80. Hyper-Geometrical Thinking
81. Illogicality Thinking
82. In-Advance Thinking
83. In-Parallel Thinking
84. In-Series Thinking
85. Inside-out Thinking
86. Integrative and Transformative Thinking
87. Interconnected Thinking
88. Interdependency Thinking
89. Interdisciplinary Thinking
90. Internetted Thinking
91. Interrelated Thinking
92. Inventor’s Thinking
93. Inward-Looking Thinking
94. Macro Thinking
95. Macroscopic Thinking
96. Metaphorical Thinking
97. Microscopic Thinking
98. Multidimensional Thinking
99. Multifaceted Thinking
100. Multilevel Thinking
101. Multi-Level Thinking
102. Multi-Perspective Thinking
103. Multi-Range Thinking
104. Multi-tasking Thinking
105. Mystified Thinking
106. Naturalist Thinking
107. Networked Thinking
108. Nonlinear Thinking
109. Non-Status Quo Thinking
110. Nuanced Thinking
111. Old-guard Thinking
112. Open Thinking
113. Orthodox Thinking
114. Outward-Looking Thinking
115. Parenthetic Thinking
116. Peripheral Thinking
117. Pluri-Filter Thinking
118. Pluri-Intent Thinking
119. Pre-“Post Mortem” Thinking
120. Preemptive Thinking
121. Pre-Forensic Thinking
122. Preter-Naturalist Thinking
123. Pseudo-Serendipitous Thinking
124. Qualitative Thinking
125. Quantitative Thinking
126. Radar Thinking
127. Radiant Thinking Irradiantly
128. Re-Engineering Thinking
129. Scenario-Method Thinking
130. Semi-Covert Thinking
131. Semigoverned Thinking
132. Semigoverned Thinking
133. Semipredictable Thinking
134. Semipredictable Thinking
135. Sonar Thinking
136. Sonar Thinking
137. Spacewalk Thinking
138. Spacewalk Thinking
139. Specificity Thinking
140. Specificity Thinking
141. Strategic Thinking
142. Strategic Thinking
143. Submarine Thinking
144. Submarine Thinking
145. Surprise-Free Thinking
146. Surprise-Free Thinking
147. Synergistic Thinking
148. Synergistic Thinking
149. Systems Thinking
150. Systems Thinking
151. Systemwide Thinking
152. Systemwide Thinking
153. Telescopic Thinking
154. Telescopic Thinking
155. Through-Paradoxes Thinking
156. Through-Paradoxes Thinking
157. Throughput Thinking
158. Throughput Thinking
159. Top-down Thinking
160. Top-down Thinking
161. Trans-Contextual Thinking
162. Trans-Contextual Thinking
163. Un-Commonsensical Thinking
164. Un-Commonsensical Thinking
165. Unconventional Thinking
166. Unconventional Thinking
167. Unconventionally-Uncommon Thinking
168. Unconventionally-Uncommon Thinking
169. Un-daydreamed-of Thinking
170. Un-Daydreamed-of Thinking
171. Undreamed-of Thinking
172. Undreamed-of Thinking
173. Unorthodox Thinking
174. Unthinkable Thinking
175. Upside-down Thinking
176. Vanguard Thinking
177. Vertical-lateral-+Thinking
178. Weird Science’s Thinking
179. Weirdo’s Thinking
180. Westernized Thinking
181. Wholeness Thinking
182. Womb-to-tomb Thinking

END OF EXCERPT.

Please see the full presentation at http://goo.gl/8fdwUP

The Future of Management Wargaming, Now! By Mr. Andres Agostini

This is an excerpt from the conclusion section of, “…The Future of Management Wargaming , Now…!” that discusses some management theories and practices. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

In addition to being aware and adaptable and resilient before the driving forces reshaping the current present and the as-of-now future, there are some extra management suggestions that I concurrently practice:

a) “…human knowledge is doubling every ten years [as per the 1998 standards]…”

b) "...computer power is doubling every eighteen months. the internet is doubling every year. the number of dna sequences we can analyze is doubling every two years…”

c) “…beginning with the amount of knowledge in the known world at the time of Christ, studies have estimated that the first doubling of that knowledge took place about 1700 A.D. the second doubling occurred around the year 1900. it is estimated today that the world’s knowledge base will double again by 2010 and again after that by 2013…”