Conversation with Peter Jones

After watching last night's interview on CBS 60 Minutes with Leslie Stahl and Donald Trump, this is where I am at this morning. Please critique. Share if you like, wave me off if you think I am way off base.

The Faculty of Scientific Model-Based Reasoning

H₀ (Null Hypothesis) Our species, Homo Sapiens, natively has the faculty of learning and employing the Scientific Faculty of Model-Based Reasoning. This includes such language-based varieties as Similes, Metaphors, Analogies, Allegories, Fables, Parables and such math-logical based varieties as Games, Simulations, Technical Models, Computer Models, and Mathematical Models.

H₁ (Working Hypothesis #1) Our species, Homo Sapiens, natively has the faculty of learning and employing the Scientific Faculty of Model-Based Reasoning, as in H₀, but only a limited few varieties are available in the public school curriculum.

H₂ (Working Hypothesis #2) The faculty of Model-Based Reasoning has a genetic component such that not all individuals in the general population natively have the aptitude for acquiring, developing, or mastering the faculties of Model-Based Reasoning.

H₃ (Working Hypothesis #3) The faculty of Scientific Model-Based Reasoning is significantly limited by a rare genetically inherited aptitude which may be specific to selected methods of expression (e.g. verbal, logical, mathematical, musical, artistic, or body-kinesthetic).

H₄ (Working Hypothesis #4) The faculty of Imitation may be a weak variety of Model-Based Representation.

H₅ (Working Hypothesis #5) The faculty of Imitation may initially manifest itself at best in jejune, lame, and inaccurate examples of mockery.

H₆ (Working Hypothesis #6) Donald Trump exemplifies the case of H₅.

H₇ (Working Hypothesis #7) Donald Trump’s base appreciates and aspires to rise to the level of H₅.

H₈ (Working Hypothesis #8) None of H₀ through H₇ have merit.

H₉ (Working Hypothesis #9) None of H₀ through H₈ apply to Donald Trump.

Exercise: What evidence can we muster to either affirm or falsify each and every hypothesis from H₀ throughH₉?

What exercises or experiments can we devise and perform to sharpen up our evidence for and against each hypothesis?

Which hypothesis, if any, survives the rigors of the protocols of the scientific method?

To discover if our species is inherently capable of routinely and systematically employing the faculty of model-based reasoning, or if that is a rare faculty that most of the general population can neither appreciate nor relate to.

I would mostly like to apply a prior question ... Do we feel the global education system is at all geared up, not just for this, but for a more important objective, enabling all citizens to contribute effectively in some way in a productive and constructive society? I see the above - Trump included - as symptoms of a deeply flawed education system, and that is continually an urgent priority for me ... "routinely and systematically" ... Or "consistent and persistent" ... This will never be widespread, humans are too diverse. Systems Thinkers themselves are too often wedded to their own obscure branch of systems thinking, at great depths, so that they struggle to step back and see the bigger picture. Most are pretty poor at telling any kind of coherent story, therefore condemning themselves to obscurity on one level or another. The vast majority of scientists, technologists and even many engineers cannot even write a decent report that is fit for consumption outside a tiny band of key niche dwellers. Waste on a truly globe destroying scale. Put this another way, Trump is an indelible and incredibly sad example of how the 19th century construct of the elitist oriented polysyllabic preferring education system is almost wholly unequipped to deal with urgent 21st century challenges ... A radical and extensive overhaul is now depressingly overdue, with no champion or even vision for the future in sight ...

None of the above ... The school system is oriented towards producing an elite who will rule the masses, and masses who will do what they are told. And others who are waste products. Disgusting.

«This will never be widespread, humans are too diverse. Systems Thinkers themselves are too often wedded to their own obscure branch of systems thinking, at great depths, so that they struggle to step back and see the bigger picture.»

Big picture thinking — thinking in terms of ecologies in general and sustainable ecologies in particular — is about as wide a perspective as one can take.

I call it the Ninth Intelligence. Howard Gardner calls it Existential Intelligence.

https://www.thoughtco.com/existential-intelligence-profile-8097

Most people are capable of learning and producing, with only very few exceptions. Even those who end up in plumbing or as electricians are still capable, but have been judged a failure academically.

And yes, it is existential intelligence, because without it we won't see the asteroid coming, or the seas filling up with plastic ...

«Most are pretty poor at telling any kind of coherent story, therefore condemning themselves to obscurity on one level or another. The vast majority of scientists, technologists and even many engineers cannot even write a decent report that is fit for consumption outside a tiny band of key niche dwellers. Waste on a truly globe destroying scale.» I agree that converting a technical theory or model into a general narrative is a challenging exercise, even for gifted science educators like Phillip Morrison, James Burke, Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Jacob Bronowski, David Attenborough, Bill Nye, Brian Greene, Brian Cox, Alan Alda, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

It does take an extended set of gifts, I think many get very set in their ways, very embedded to their approach, and lack "personal innovation", again an educational failing since many assume education stops on graduation ...

«Put this another way, Trump is an indelible and incredibly sad example of how the 19th century construct of the elitist oriented polysyllabic preferring education system is almost wholly unequipped to deal with urgent 21st century challenges ... A radical and extensive overhaul is now depressingly overdue, with no champion or even vision for the future in sight ...» Is Trump's popularity a symptom of a failing and backward culture, or is it evidence of an inherent and genetic shortcoming in generic brain architecture that afflicts the majority of the population of our species?

«The school system is oriented towards producing an elite who will rule the masses, and masses who will do what they are told. And others who are waste products. Disgusting.» Then it's a nefarious political conspiracy, stronger than Bullet #3 (Is it because the public school bureaucracy is politically biased against including this kind of material?). Not just a bias, but an intentional nefarious political conspiracy?

«Most people are capable of learning and producing, with only very few exceptions. Even those who end up in plumbing or as electricians are still capable, but have been judged a failure academically.» So that's pretty much H₁ (Working Hypothesis #1) — Our species, Homo Sapiens, natively has the faculty of learning and employing the Scientific Faculty of Model-Based Reasoning, as in H₀, but only a limited few varieties are available in the public school curriculum. Or maybe something intermediate between H₁ and H₂ — teaching at a level significantly below native aptitude.

«And yes, it is existential intelligence, because without it we won't see the asteroid coming, or the seas filling up with plastic ...» Then we need to construct a secular version of Existential Intelligence and devise a way to introduce it into the general curriculum. Up until now, the Church has pretty much had a lock on the earliest applications of Existential Thinking. We need to be able to teach Secular Ethics without conflating it with Churchly Morals.

«It does take an extended set of gifts, I think many get very set in their ways, very embedded to their approach, and lack "personal innovation", again an educational failing since many assume education stops on graduation ...» This is a crucial parameter. Do we have a duty to reliably identify those who are natively gifted and talented and provide them the enrichment that would be wasted on the middle-range students?

«Trump's popularity could be precisely because of the science community's failure to sell its own story ...» Notice how difficult I find it to sell my story. Notice how difficult it is for Nora Bateson to sell her story. This appears to be a ubiquitous issue among science educators — even the best of them.

«For Trump to make more sense popularly than the science community is a huge condemnation ...»

And a huge disappointment. We need to devise a better way. And I think that the next big untapped opportunity is Interactive Virtual Reality Simulations as an alternative media for immersing the general public in acquiring the faculties subsumed under the rubric of the Ninth Intelligence.

http://TinyURL.Com/Ninth-Intelligence

«It's the way the system was set up, and the system is too embedded, and gets too much reward, given the way it is. Folks in the system are reluctant Turkeys, preferring not to vote for Christmas ...» Would they vote for (and pay for) Interactive Virtual Reality Simulations?

«Secular Existential Intelligence ... Yes ... Knowledge is abundant, and available, why cannot folk access it?» Excellent question that calls for some sociological research to discover the answers. «YouTube, when harnessed correctly, is an astonishing knowledge resource ...» John Green, Hank Green, Vanessa Hill, (Crash Courses from PBS Digital Studios), Vi Hart, Brady Haran (Nottingham Science), and many others like them have pioneered the educational potential of YouTube. «Paying puts the whole question back where you started, with only the elite able to get access ...» Look at how much people are already paying for cell phone service, cable TV, Netflix and Hulu, etc. It occurs to me that competition for time and attention is more salient than conventional economic budget factors. What we need to do is make education less banal and boring and more like edutainment.

Still need to understand knowledge is freely available, though, and education the system should act as guide, not dictator ...

I agree 100%. Educational resources should enable and empower learning far beyond the essentials of a basic core curriculum.

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