TOOL for Learning: Back on the road again in C.2.2.

TEDTalks: Ken Robinson, “Do schools kill creativity?”
https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity

Before you listen
This is how the author is introduced on the TED site:

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.

What do you think his answer to the question in his talk title will be? What arguments can you predict he is going to use?

Now watch the video without subtitles. You may use them later on to understand parts of the video better, if necessary.

Tasks to do:

Make a list of ways in which, according to the speaker, education as we currently understand it is wrong.
Summarize what the speaker says about intelligence.
Find at least three examples of humour in the video (you may select the ones you find funniest, if you like).
Think about these questions, which you will discuss with others in class:
What could the speaker’s motivation be in using so much humour in this talk?
Does he achieve his purpose?
What are the benefits of using humour in a talk or presentation? What could be the dangers?
Vocabulary: Work out (or look up if you can’t) the meaning of the words and phrases in bold:


01:33 But if you ask about their education, they pin you to the wall.
02:47 And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents
05:14 What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go.
06:15 So you can imagine what a seamless transition that was.
09:44 And I like university professors, but, you know, we shouldn’t hold them up as the high-water mark of all human achievement.
10:28 If you want real evidence of out-of-body experiences, by the way, get yourself along to a residencial conference of senior academics and pop into the discotheque on the final night.
10:40 And there you will see it. Grown men and women writhing uncontrollably, off the beat.
10:54 Our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability.
11:10 So, you were probably steered away from things at school when you were a kid, things you liked.
17:35 Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth for a particular commodity.

Prepare to talk about these questions in class:

Do you agree with the speaker’s views on education? Why (not)?
Did your own education as a child or teenager foster creativity? If it did, give examples. If it didn’t, how has this affected you in later life?

Yes

TEDTalks: Ken Robinson, “Do schools kill creativity?”
https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity

Before you listen
This is how the author is introduced on the TED site:

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.

What do you think his answer to the question in his talk title will be?
I think he’s going to say “absolutely yes”
What arguments can you predict he is going to use?
I guess he will say that devolupment of creativity is definitively not a target of our educational system.

Now watch the video without subtitles. You may use them later on to understand parts of the video better, if necessary.

Tasks to do:

Make a list of ways in which, according to the speaker, education as we currently understand it is wrong.

kids have tremendous talents, and we squander them

Creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.

His contention is, kids have extraordinary capacity for innovation.

If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with sth original

We are educating people out of their creative capacities.

Educational systems were created to meet the needs of industrialism

Many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they're not because the thing they were good at at school wasn't valued or was actually stigmatized.

Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything. Isn't that true?

Our education system has mined our minds for a particular commodity.

Summarize what the speaker says about intelligence.

We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence.
We know 3 things about intelligence
One, it's diverse. We think about the world in all the ways that we experience it. We think visually, we think in sound, we think khinestetically. We think in abstract terms, we think in movement.
Secondly, intelligence is dynamic, intelligence is interactive.
And the third thing, intelligence is distinct.

Find at least three examples of humour in the video (you may select the ones you find funniest, if you like).

1) If you are at a dinner party, and you say you work in education.....actually, you're not often at dinner parties, frankly, if you work in education..........You're not asked....
2) Teacher to girl: "What are you drawing?" Girl "I'm drawing a picture of God" Teacher "but nobody knows what God looks like" Girl "They will in a minute"
3) I lived in Stratford until about five years ago. In fact we moved from Stratford to LA. So you can imagine what a seamless transition that was.(ironic)
4) “I’ll never find another girl like Sarah” And we were rather pleased about that frankly, because she was the main reason we were leaving the country.


Think about these questions, which you will discuss with others in class:
What could the speaker’s motivation be in using so much humour in this talk?
Does he achieve his purpose?
What are the benefits of using humour in a talk or presentation? What could be the dangers?

Vocabulary: Work out (or look up if you can’t) the meaning of the words and phrases in bold:

01:33 But if you ask about their education, they pin you to the wall.
means "don't let you go".For example if i have something important to tell you I will pin you to the wall until i finish to tell my whole story
02:47 And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents
an opinion expressed in an argument:
05:14 What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go.
to make an attempt at (doing something)
06:15 So you can imagine what a seamless transition that was.
happening without any sudden changes, interruption, or difficulty:
09:44 And I like university professors, but, you know, we shouldn’t hold them up as the high-water mark of all human achievement.
the most successful point of something:
10:28 If you want real evidence of out-of-body experiences, by the way, get yourself along to a residencial conference of senior academics and pop into the discotheque on the final night.
an experience in which you feel as if you have left your own body and can see it from the outside, usually from above
10:40 And there you will see it. Grown men and women writhing uncontrollably, off the beat.
to make large twisting movements with the body:
10:54 Our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability.
to say that something is true:
11:10 So, you were probably steered away from things at school when you were a kid, things you liked.
to take someone or something or make someone or something go in the direction in which you want him, her, or it:
17:35 Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth for a particular commodity.
a method of obtaining substances such as coal from the ground that involves removing the top layer of soil instead of digging deep holes underground
a substance or product that can be traded, bought, or sold:

Prepare to talk about these questions in class:

Do you agree with the speaker’s views on education? Why (not)?
Did your own education as a child or teenager foster creativity? If it did, give examples. If it didn’t, how has this affected you in later life?

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/predicate
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/steer
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/contention
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/strip-mining

4. "My Creative Life": a podcast
Listen to a podcast from RTÉ Ireland's National Television and Radio Broadcaster. It is part of a series called "My Creative Life", where children and teenagers talk about ways in which they are creative.

Thirteen-year-old Aoibheann Mangan from Hollymount in Co. Mayo talks about her passion for coding:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BkPFRlFMg95NNf0qmnmQYi4JObdWWmlD/view


My Creative Life: a podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/60JlmOG7McN3YqXH2WxBgf?si=l6KxEVizSLexMOUujDHL0g&dl_branch=1
What does the speaker say about the following? Make notes:

School


A Tesco car park


A website about farm safety


A “wire-frame”


A friend in a wheelchair


Feedback


A free coding hub


Boys and girls


A teacher’s conference

Discuss:
Did you find this story inspiring? Are there any lessons to be learnt from it?
How did you cope with the Irish accent?

The answers:

My Creative Life: a podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/60JlmOG7McN3YqXH2WxBgf?si=l6KxEVizSLexMOUujDHL0g&dl_branch=1

What does the speaker say about the following? Make notes:


1. School – At school teachers usually write down their sums and you copy, but with technology you can do much more, create…

2. A Tesco car park – While her mother was shopping at Tesco she stayed programming at the car park because that place was the nearest wi-fi point available for her.

3. A website about farm safety – The first time she started programming was at school when she and her colleague designed a website about farm safety for a website competition. Although they were totally new, they won some awards like the best group Project or People Of The Year.

4. A “wire-frame” – The first thing she does when she builds a new web is to create a wire-frame, A wire-frame is a layout of what is going to look like.

5. A friend in a wheelchair – One of her latest projects is Hospital Holly and Henry. She’s got a friend called Grace who is in a wheelchair and is afraid of hospitals, and she has created a game in order to stop them feeling scared and wonder what is going to happen (make visits to hospital much more comfortable)

6. Feedback  - It’s very important to get other people’s feedback on how they think the app is or what they think needs to be improved.


7. A free coding hub – A project she’s running in her village where people comes in, have fun and learn how to code

8. Boys and girls – When she started there were mainly boys in the room, but she thinks this is not fair, as girls can do as good as boys. But now she is happy because is 50/50 and this might show girls are trying to get the same opportunities.

9. A teacher’s conference – When she was 10 years old she spoke at a teachers conference for the first time about her experiences with technology.A few people came up to me after he finished and said it had been very inspiring.

Discuss:
Did you find this story inspiring?
Yes, indeed.

Are there any lessons to be learnt from it?

I would like to underline four lessons which I find essential:
1) Creativity is an asset we all have in different degrees. But the thing that really fuels creativity is motivation, to be eager to discover something new.
2) Her trips to Tesco car park in search of the free wi-fi show us perfectly that the absence of means is not an obstacle when you have a sheer determination.
3) There is nothing wrong with “art for art’s sake” but focusing your creativity to help problems in your community gives you a big plus.
4) It is really rewarding to share your knowledge and help others understand technology and profit from it.

How did you cope with the Irish accent?
It stroke me at first listen but could follow her talk perfectly well.

5. Talent: reading comprehension

Reading: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Do activities 2,3 and 5


In every interview I’m asked what’s the most important quality a novelist has to have. It’s pretty obvious: talent. No matter how much enthusiasm and effort you put into writing, if you totally lack literary talent you can forget about being a novelist. This is more of a pre-requisite than a necessary quality. If you don’t have any fuel, even the best car won’t run.

The problem with talent, though, is that in most cases the person involved can’t control its amount or quality. … Talent has a mind of its own and wells up when it wants to, and once it dries up, that’s it. Of course certain poets and rock singers whose genius went out in a blaze of glory – people like Schubert and Mozart, whose dramatic early deaths turned them into legends – have a certain appeal, but for the vast majority of us this isn’t the model we follow.

If I’m asked what the next most important quality is for a novelist, that’s easy too: focus – the ability to concentrate all your limited talents on whatever’s critical at the moment. Without that you can’t accomplish anything of value, while, if you can focus effectively, you’ll be able to compensate for an erratic talent or even a shortage of it. I generally concentrate on work for three or four hours every morning. I sit at my desk and focus totally on what I’m writing. I don’t see anything else, I don’t think about
anything else. …

After focus, the next most important thing for a novelist is, hands down, endurance. If you concentrate on writing three or four hours a day and feel tired after a week of this, you’re not going to be able to write a long work. What’s needed for a writer of fiction – at least one who hopes to write a novel – is the energy to focus every day for half a year, or a year, two years. …

Fortunately, these two disciplines – focus and endurance – are different from talent, since they can be acquired and sharpened through training. You’ll naturally learn both concentration and endurance when you sit down every day at your desk and train yourself to focus on one point. This is a lot like the training of muscles … gradually you’ll expand the limits of what you’re able to do. Almost imperceptibly you’ll make the bar rise. This involves the same process as jogging every day to strengthen your muscles and develop a runner’s physique. …
Patience is a must in this process, but I guarantee the results will come. … The great mystery writer Raymond Chandler once confessed that even if he didn’t write anything, he made sure he sat down at his desk every single day and concentrated. …

Most of what I know about writing I’ve learned through running every day. These are practical, physical lessons. … I know that if I hadn’t become a long-distance runner when I became a novelist, my work would have been vastly different.

Questions / Answers reading comprehension

Written mediation: a summary
Due: Wednesday, 13 October 2021, 11:59 PM

Read chapter 19 of Noah Yuval Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (pp. 301-312). If you haven't managed to get the book yet, you will find the same text here, published as an article:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/yuval-noah-harari-extract-21-lessons-for-the-21st-century

An education journal has asked you to write a short text reporting Harari's views on education. Summarize the chapter in no more than 200-250 words. Before you do this task, check these links to help you:

Instructions 1: The speaker refers to academic writing, but the advice is useful for writing summaries of any kind.

Instructions 2:
Reading to Write: Summarizing
Summarizing a text, or distilling its essential concepts into a paragraph or two,
is a useful study tool as well as good writing practice. A summary has two
aims: (1) to reproduce the overarching ideas in a text, identifying the general
concepts that run through the entire piece, and (2) to express these
overarching ideas using precise, specific language. When you summarize, you
cannot rely on the language the author has used to develop his or her points,
and you must find a way to give an overview of these points without your own
sentences becoming too general. You must also make decisions about which
concepts to leave in and which to omit, taking into consideration your purposes
in summarizing and also your view of what is important in this text. Here are
some methods for summarizing:
a. Include the title and identify the author in your first sentence.
b. The first sentence or two of your summary should contain the author’s
thesis, or central concept, stated in your own words. This is the idea that
runs through the entire text--the one you’d mention if someone asked you:
“What is this piece/article about?” Unlike student essays, the main idea in
a primary document or an academic article may not be stated in one
location at the beginning. Instead, it may be gradually developed
throughout the piece or it may become fully apparent only at the end.
c. When summarizing a longer article, try to see how the various stages in
the explanation or argument are built up in groups of related paragraphs.
Divide the article into sections if it isn’t done in the published form. Then,
write a sentence or two to cover the key ideas in each section.
d. Omit ideas that are not really central to the text. Don’t feel that you must
reproduce the author’s exact progression of thought. (On the other hand,
be careful not to misrepresent ideas by omitting important aspects of the
author’s discussion).
e. In general, omit minor details and specific examples. (In some texts, an
extended example may be a key part of the argument, so you would want to
mention it).
f. Avoid writing opinions or personal responses in your summaries (save
these for active reading responses or tutorial discussions).
g. Be careful not to plagiarize the author’s words. If you do use even a few of
the author’s words, they must appear in quotation marks. To avoid
plagiarism, try writing the first draft of your summary without looking back
at the original text.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/yuval-noah-harari-extract-21-lessons-for-the-21st-century

Yuval Noah Harari on what the year 2050 has in store for humankind
"As the pace of change increases, the very meaning of being human is likely to mutate and physical and cognitive structures will melt"

Forget programming - the best skill to teach children is reinvention. In this exclusive extract from his new book, the author of Sapiens reveals what 2050 has in store for humankind.

Part one: Change is the only constant
Humankind is facing unprecedented revolutions, all our old stories are crumbling and no new story has so far emerged to replace them. How can we prepare ourselves and our children for a world of such unprecedented transformations and radical uncertainties? A baby born today will be thirty-something in 2050. If all goes well, that baby will still be around in 2100, and might even be an active citizen of the 22nd century. What should we teach that baby that will help him or her survive and flourish in the world of 2050 or of the 22nd century? What kind of skills will he or she need in order to get a job, understand what is happening around them and navigate the maze of life?

Unfortunately, since nobody knows how the world will look in 2050 – not to mention 2100 – we don’t know the answer to these questions. Of course, humans have never been able to predict the future with accuracy. But today it is more difficult than ever before, because once technology enables us to engineer bodies, brains and minds, we can no longer be certain about anything – including things that previously seemed fixed and eternal.

A thousand years ago, in 1018, there were many things people didn’t know about the future, but they were nevertheless convinced that the basic features of human society were not going to change. If you lived in China in 1018, you knew that by 1050 the Song Empire might collapse, the Khitans might invade from the north, and plagues might kill millions. However, it was clear to you that even in 1050 most people would still work as farmers and weavers, rulers would still rely on humans to staff their armies and bureaucracies, men would still dominate women, life expectancy would still be about 40, and the human body would be exactly the same. Hence in 1018, poor Chinese parents taught their children how to plant rice or weave silk, and wealthier parents taught their boys how to read the Confucian classics, write calligraphy or fight on horseback – and taught their girls to be modest and obedient housewives. It was obvious these skills would still be needed in 1050.

In contrast, today we have no idea how China or the rest of the world will look in 2050. We don’t know what people will do for a living, we don’t know how armies or bureaucracies will function, and we don’t know what gender relations will be like. Some people will probably live much longer than today, and the human body itself might undergo an unprecedented revolution thanks to bioengineering and direct brain-computer interfaces. Much of what kids learn today will likely be irrelevant by 2050.

At present, too many schools focus on cramming information. In the past this made sense, because information was scarce, and even the slow trickle of existing information was repeatedly blocked by censorship. If you lived, say, in a small provincial town in Mexico in 1800, it was difficult for you to know much about the wider world. There was no radio, television, daily newspapers or public libraries. Even if you were literate and had access to a private library, there was not much to read other than novels and religious tracts. The Spanish Empire heavily censored all texts printed locally, and allowed only a dribble of vetted publications to be imported from outside. Much the same was true if you lived in some provincial town in Russia, India, Turkey or China. When modern schools came along, teaching every child to read and write and imparting the basic facts of geography, history and biology, they represented an immense improvement.

In contrast, in the 21st century we are flooded by enormous amounts of information, and even the censors don’t try to block it. Instead, they are busy spreading misinformation or distracting us with irrelevancies. If you live in some provincial Mexican town and you have a smartphone, you can spend many lifetimes just reading Wikipedia, watching TED talks, and taking free online courses. No government can hope to conceal all the information it doesn’t like. On the other hand, it is alarmingly easy to inundate the public with conflicting reports and red herrings. People all over the world are but a click away from the latest accounts of the bombardment of Aleppo or of melting ice caps in the Arctic, but there are so many contradictory accounts that it is hard to know what to believe. Besides, countless other things are just a click away, making it difficult to focus, and when politics or science look too complicated it is tempting to switch to funny cat videos, celebrity gossip or porn.

In such a world, the last thing a teacher needs to give her pupils is more information. They already have far too much of it. Instead, people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and above all to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world.

In truth, this has been the ideal of western liberal education for centuries, but up till now even many western schools have been rather slack in fulfilling it. Teachers allowed themselves to focus on shoving data while encouraging pupils “to think for themselves”. Due to their fear of authoritarianism, liberal schools had a particular horror of grand narratives. They assumed that as long as we give students lots of data and a modicum of freedom, the students will create their own picture of the world, and even if this generation fails to synthesise all the data into a coherent and meaningful story of the world, there will be plenty of time to construct a good synthesis in the future. We have now run out of time. The decisions we will take in the next few decades will shape the future of life itself, and we can take these decisions based only on our present world view. If this generation lacks a comprehensive view of the cosmos, the future of life will be decided at random.

Part two: The heat is on
Besides information, most schools also focus too much on providing pupils with a set of predetermined skills such as solving differential equations, writing computer code in C++, identifying chemicals in a test tube or conversing in Chinese. Yet since we have no idea how the world and the job market will look in 2050, we don’t really know what particular skills people will need. We might invest a lot of effort teaching kids how to write in C++ or how to speak Chinese, only to discover that by 2050 AI can code software far better than humans, and a new Google Translate app enables you to conduct a conversation in almost flawless Mandarin, Cantonese or Hakka, even though you only know how to say “Ni hao”.

So what should we be teaching? Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching “the four Cs” – critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. More broadly, schools should downplay technical skills and emphasise general-purpose life skills. Most important of all will be the ability to deal with change, to learn new things and to preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situations. In order to keep up with the world of 2050, you will need not merely to invent new ideas and products – you will above all need to reinvent yourself again and again.

For as the pace of change increases, not just the economy, but the very meaning of “being human” is likely to mutate. In 1848, the Communist Manifesto declared that “all that is solid melts into air”. Marx and Engels, however, were thinking mainly about social and economic structures. By 2048, physical and cognitive structures will also melt into air, or into a cloud of data bits.

In 1848, millions of people were losing their jobs on village farms, and were going to the big cities to work in factories. But upon reaching the big city, they were unlikely to change their gender or to add a sixth sense. And if they found a job in some textile factory, they could expect to remain in that profession for the rest of their working lives.

By 2048, people might have to cope with migrations to cyberspace, with fluid gender identities, and with new sensory experiences generated by computer implants. If they find both work and meaning in designing up-to-the-minute fashions for a 3D virtual-reality game, within a decade not just this particular profession, but all jobs demanding this level of artistic creation might be taken over by AI. So at 25, you introduce yourself on a dating site as “a twenty-five-year-old heterosexual woman who lives in London and works in a fashion shop.” At 35, you say you are “a gender-non-specific person undergoing age- adjustment, whose neocortical activity takes place mainly in the NewCosmos virtual world, and whose life mission is to go where no fashion designer has gone before”. At 45, both dating and self-definitions are so passé. You just wait for an algorithm to find (or create) the perfect match for you. As for drawing meaning from the art of fashion design, you are so irrevocably outclassed by the algorithms, that looking at your crowning achievements from the previous decade fills you with embarrassment rather than pride. And at 45, you still have many decades of radical change ahead of you.

Please don’t take this scenario literally. Nobody can really predict the specific changes we will witness. Any particular scenario is likely to be far from the truth. If somebody describes to you the world of the mid-21st century and it sounds like science fiction, it is probably false. But then if somebody describes to you the world of the mid 21st-century and it doesn’t sound like science fiction – it is certainly false. We cannot be sure of the specifics, but change itself is the only certainty.

Such profound change may well transform the basic structure of life, making discontinuity its most salient feature. From time immemorial, life was divided into two complementary parts: a period of learning followed by a period of working. In the first part of life you accumulated information, developed skills, constructed a world view, and built a stable identity. Even if at 15 you spent most of your day working in the family’s rice field (rather than in a formal school), the most important thing you were doing was learning: how to cultivate rice, how to conduct negotiations with the greedy rice merchants from the big city and how to resolve conflicts over land and water with the other villagers. In the second part of life you relied on your accumulated skills to navigate the world, earn a living, and contribute to society. Of course, even at 50 you continued to learn new things about rice, about merchants and about conflicts, but these were just small tweaks to well-honed abilities.

By the middle of the 21st century, accelerating change plus longer lifespans will make this traditional model obsolete. Life will come apart at the seams, and there will be less and less continuity between different periods of life. “Who am I?” will be a more urgent and complicated question than ever before.

This is likely to involve immense levels of stress. For change is almost always stressful, and after a certain age most people just don’t like to change. When you are 15, your entire life is change. Your body is growing, your mind is developing, your relationships are deepening. Everything is in flux, and everything is new. You are busy inventing yourself. Most teenagers find it frightening, but at the same time, also exciting. New vistas are opening before you, and you have an entire world to conquer. By the time you are 50, you don’t want change, and most people have given up on conquering the world. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. You much prefer stability. You have invested so much in your skills, your career, your identity and your world view that you don’t want to start all over again. The harder you’ve worked on building something, the more difficult it is to let go of it and make room for something new. You might still cherish new experiences and minor adjustments, but most people in their fifties aren’t ready to overhaul the deep structures of their identity and personality.

There are neurological reasons for this. Though the adult brain is more flexible and volatile than was once thought, it is still less malleable than the teenage brain. Reconnecting neurons and rewiring synapses is damned hard work. But in the 21st century, you can hardly afford stability. If you try to hold on to some stable identity, job or world view, you risk being left behind as the world flies by you with a whooooosh. Given that life expectancy is likely to increase, you might subsequently have to spend many decades as a clueless fossil. To stay relevant – not just economically, but above all socially – you will need the ability to constantly learn and to reinvent yourself, certainly at a young age like 50.

As strangeness becomes the new normal, your past experiences, as well as the past experiences of the whole of humanity, will become less reliable guides. Humans as individuals and humankind as a whole will increasingly have to deal with things nobody ever encountered before, such as super-intelligent machines, engineered bodies, algorithms that can manipulate your emotions with uncanny precision, rapid man-made climate cataclysms, and the need to change your profession every decade. What is the right thing to do when confronting a completely unprecedented situation? How should you act when you are flooded by enormous amounts of information and there is absolutely no way you can absorb and analyse it all? How to live in a world where profound uncertainty is not a bug, but a feature?

To survive and flourish in such a world, you will need a lot of mental flexibility and great reserves of emotional balance. You will have to repeatedly let go of some of what you know best, and feel at home with the unknown. Unfortunately, teaching kids to embrace the unknown and to keep their mental balance is far more difficult than teaching them an equation in physics or the causes of the first world war. You cannot learn resilience by reading a book or listening to a lecture. The teachers themselves usually lack the mental flexibility that the 21st century demands, for they themselves are the product of the old educational system.

The Industrial Revolution has bequeathed us the production-line theory of education. In the middle of town there is a large concrete building divided into many identical rooms, each room equipped with rows of desks and chairs. At the sound of a bell, you go to one of these rooms together with 30 other kids who were all born the same year as you. Every hour some grown-up walks in and starts talking. They are all paid to do so by the government. One of them tells you about the shape of the Earth, another tells you about the human past, and a third tells you about the human body. It is easy to laugh at this model, and almost everybody agrees that no matter its past achievements, it is now bankrupt. But so far we haven’t created a viable alter- native. Certainly not a scaleable alternative that can be implemented in rural Mexico rather than just in upmarket California suburbs.

Part three: Hacking humans
So the best advice I could give a 15-year-old stuck in an outdated school somewhere in Mexico, India or Alabama is: don’t rely on the adults too much. Most of them mean well, but they just don’t understand the world. In the past, it was a relatively safe bet to follow the adults, because they knew the world quite well, and the world changed slowly. But the 21st century is going to be different. Due to the growing pace of change, you can never be certain whether what the adults are telling you is timeless wisdom or outdated bias.

So on what can you rely instead? Technology? That’s an even riskier gamble. Technology can help you a lot, but if technology gains too much power over your life, you might become a hostage to its agenda. Thousands of years ago, humans invented agriculture, but this technology enriched just a tiny elite, while enslaving the majority of humans. Most people found themselves working from sunrise till sunset plucking weeds, carrying water buckets and harvesting corn under a blazing sun. It can happen to you too.

Technology isn’t bad. If you know what you want in life, technology can help you get it. But if you don’t know what you want in life, it will be all too easy for technology to shape your aims for you and take control of your life. Especially as technology gets better at understanding humans, you might increasingly find yourself serving it, instead of it serving you. Have you seen those zombies who roam the streets with their faces glued to their smartphones? Do you think they control the technology, or does the technology control them?

Should you rely on yourself, then? That sounds great on Sesame Street or in an old-fashioned Disney film, but in real life it doesn’t work so well. Even Disney is coming to realise it. Just like Inside Out’s Riley Andersen, most people hardly know themselves, and when they try to “listen to themselves” they easily become prey to external manipulations. The voice we hear inside our heads was never trustworthy, because it always reflected state propaganda, ideological brainwashing and commercial advertisement, not to mention biochemical bugs.

As biotechnology and machine learning improve, it will become easier to manipulate people’s deepest emotions and desires, and it will become more dangerous than ever to just follow your heart. When Coca-Cola, Amazon, Baidu or the government knows how to pull the strings of your heart and press the buttons of your brain, could you still tell the difference between your self and their marketing experts?

To succeed in such a daunting task, you will need to work very hard on getting to know your operating system better. To know what you are, and what you want from life. This is, of course, the oldest advice in the book: know thyself. For thousands of years, philosophers and prophets have urged people to know themselves. But this advice was never more urgent than in the 21st century, because unlike in the days of Laozi or Socrates, now you have serious competition. Coca-Cola, Amazon, Baidu and the government are all racing to hack you. Not your smartphone, not your computer, and not your bank account – they are in a race to hack you, and your organic operating system. You might have heard that we are living in the era of hacking computers, but that’s hardly half the truth. In fact, we are living in the era of hacking humans.

The algorithms are watching you right now. They are watching where you go, what you buy, who you meet. Soon they will monitor all your steps, all your breaths, all your heartbeats. They are relying on Big Data and machine learning to get to know you better and better. And once these algorithms know you better than you know yourself, they could control and manipulate you, and you won’t be able to do much about it. You will live in the matrix, or in The Truman Show. In the end, it’s a simple empirical matter: if the algorithms indeed understand what’s happening within you better than you understand it, authority will shift to them.

Of course, you might be perfectly happy ceding all authority to the algorithms and trusting them to decide things for you and for the rest of the world. If so, just relax and enjoy the ride. You don’t need to do anything about it. The algorithms will take care of everything. If, however, you want to retain some control of your personal existence and of the future of life, you have to run faster than the algorithms, faster than Amazon and the government, and get to know yourself before they do. To run fast, don’t take much luggage with you. Leave all your illusions behind. They are very heavy.

Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (Vintage Digital) is published on August 30

My first summary:

In the first chapter of his new book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century Yuval Noah Harari tackles with education at present times and how to make it worthwhile in future.

According to him, as the world is evolving in a constant and faster change driven by technology, nobody can predict with accuracy what kind of skills will be needed in future. At the same time he points out that too many exposure to information may distract us from what really matters, and therefore we need to learn to be selective to identify what is important rather than collecting tons of data. So, after analysing in depth the foundations of our traditional education, he believes that this system has to switch, from the simple teaching of learning technical skills and the gathering of information, to the learning of the ability of dealing with change, the ability of constant self-reinvention.

Even if his proposed guidelines were to be followed in future, the author thinks that their impact on our wealth social will not be achieved without a prior new widespread attitude towards change. In a few words, fear of change must ideally give way to lust for change, although he realizes this is going to be harder for seniors. As a tool to face succesfully these uncertain times he strongly recommends us a deep self-knowledege - who we really are, what we really want - rather than depending too much on technology.


Including corrections and remarks from teacher:

In the first chapter of his new book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century [ITALICS FOR BOOK TITLES] Yuval Noah Harari tackles with education at present times and how to make it worthwhile in future.

According to him, as the world is evolving in a constant and faster change V [TRY TO REPHRASE] driven by technology, nobody can predict with accuracy what kind of skills will be needed in future. At the same time he points out that too many G exposure to information may distract us from what really matters, and therefore we need to learn to be selective to identify what is important rather than collecting tons of data. So, after analysing in depth the foundations of our traditional education, he believes that this system has to switch, from the simple teaching of learning technical skills and the gathering of information, to the learning of the ability of dealing G with change, the ability [REPETITIVE, TRY TO FIND A SYNONYM] of constant self-reinvention.

Even if his proposed guidelines were to be followed in future, the author thinks that their impact on our wealth social ? will not be achieved without a prior new widespread attitude towards change. In a few words [NOT FORMAL ENOUGH FOR A JOURNAL], fear of change must ideally give way to lust for change [HARARI DOESN'T ARGUE THIS], although he realizes this is going to be harder for seniors. As a tool to face succesfully these uncertain times he strongly recommends us a deep self-knowledege -        who we really are, what we really want - rather than depending too much on technology.

-Mostly correct content.
-Correct structure.
-A few language problems.


My new submission:

In the first chapter of his new book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century Yuval Noah Harari tackles education at present and how to make it worthwhile in future.

According to him, as our technology-driven world is changing faster than ever, nobody can predict with accuracy what kind of skills will be needed in future. At the same time he points out that too much exposure to information may distract us from what really matters, and therefore we need to learn to be selective to identify what is important rather than collect tons of data. So, after analysing in depth the foundations of our traditional education, he believes that this system has to switch, from the simple teaching of technical skills and the gathering of information, to the learning of the ability to deal with change, the capacity of constant self-reinvention.

Even if his proposed guidelines were to be followed in future, the author thinks that their impact on our welfare will not be achieved without a prior new widespread attitude towards change. That is, we must assume that change is the only constant in life , although he realizes this is going to be harder for seniors. As a tool to face succesfully these uncertain times he strongly recommends us deep introspection- “who am I?, what do I really want?”- rather than depending too much on technology.

Activities to do by October 20

This week you should do the following activities from the activity book in Topic 1, Creativity:

Chapter 6: Follow the instructions. One of the tasks consists in posting a message on a forum. Forum posts are not graded, but you may get feedback about mistakes (individual or for the group), and participation is considered a plus for assessment.
Chapter 7: We'll check the answers in class.
Chapter 8: You'll get an assessment mark for this.
Also in Topic 1, you have the forum "Five measures to make your company more creative". Don't post a proposal there unless you were in class on October 13 and did the group activity. However, feel free to comment on other students' proposals if you want.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century: Start reading Part I, "The Technological Challenge". You don't need to finish reading it this week and there's no specific task to do for now. In the next class I'll set some activities for later on.

4. Carry on with the activities in MyELT (Keynote Proficient).

Have a good week.

Intruder escribió:My first summary:

In the first chapter of his new book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century Yuval Noah Harari tackles with education at present times and how to make it worthwhile in future.

According to him, as the world is evolving in a constant and faster change driven by technology, nobody can predict with accuracy what kind of skills will be needed in future. At the same time he points out that too much exposure to information may distract us from what really matters, and therefore we need to learn to be selective to identify what is important rather than collecting tons of data. So, after analysing in depth the foundations of our traditional education, he believes that this system has to switch, from the simple teaching of learning technical skills and the gathering of information, to the learning of the ability of dealing with change, the ability of constant self-reinvention.

Even if his proposed guidelines were to be followed in future, the author thinks that their impact on our social wealth will not be achieved without a prior new widespread attitude towards change. In a few words, fear of change must ideally give way to desire for change, although he realizes this is going to be harder for seniors. As a tool to successfully face these uncertain times he strongly recommends us a deep self-knowledege - who we really are, what we really want - rather than depending too much on technology.

I took the liberty of correcting you.

jojomojo escribió:

Intruder escribió:My first summary:

In the first chapter of his new book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century Yuval Noah Harari tackles with education at present times and how to make it worthwhile in future.

According to him, as the world is evolving in a constant and faster change driven by technology, nobody can predict with accuracy what kind of skills will be needed in future. At the same time he points out that too much exposure to information may distract us from what really matters, and therefore we need to learn to be selective to identify what is important rather than collecting tons of data. So, after analysing in depth the foundations of our traditional education, he believes that this system has to switch, from the simple teaching of learning technical skills and the gathering of information, to the learning of the ability of dealing with change, the ability of constant self-reinvention.

Even if his proposed guidelines were to be followed in future, the author thinks that their impact on our social wealth will not be achieved without a prior new widespread attitude towards change. In a few words, fear of change must ideally give way to desire for change, although he realizes this is going to be harder for seniors. As a tool to successfully face these uncertain times he strongly recommends us a deep self-knowledege - who we really are, what we really want - rather than depending too much on technology.

I took the liberty of correcting you.

Thanks a lot! You're always welcomed!

Also in Topic 1, you have the forum "Five measures to make your company more creative". Don't post a proposal there unless you were in class on October 13 and did the group activity. However, feel free to comment on other students' proposals if you want.

1) Provide employees with inspiring workplaces and tools: Natural light, green environment, ergonomic  furnishings, standing /sitting desks, wifi all over the office...

2) Expand your team’s  knowledge base: Encourage your staff to register for specialized courses, to apply for a university or a master degree.

3) Start an international employee exchange programme  if your  organization has subsidiaries in different countries.

4) Destroy your "stereotyped" fixed ideas. Cooperativa de Guissona might be a good example as they stopped being a supplier for retailers (as other manufacturers were) and started to develop succesfully their own chain of groceries.

5) Let your ideas "incubate" by taking a break from them. Some ideas look bright at first but are not ready or feasible to be launched into the real world. In other situations, it is the real world the one which is still not ready for your revolutionary idea.

Hope Jojo will show up..

Exemple = example

Shanks escribió:Exemple = example

Thank you Shanks!

Never let me walk alone...

"Creative Person of the Year" forum

After watching the videos in chapter 6, imagine that the two women who appear in them are the finalists in a visual arts competition called "Creative Person of the Year". Its purpose is to bring to the fore the achievements of original  creators whose work is considered to be of high quality and social relevance.

Post a message on the forum supporting one of the candidates and giving reasons for your choice. Alternatively, you may respond to someone else's post.



6. Two examples of creativity: compare and contrast

Watch these two videos and do the following tasks:





1. Make a list of at least three new words or phrases you have learnt from each video.

2. Think of what the two types of creativity exemplified by the women in these videos and answer these questions:

-What do they have in common?

-What are the differences between them?

- What is your reaction to their work?

Prepare to share your answers with other students in class.

3. Take part in this forum:

"Creative person of the year" forum

Draft for the answers:

1. Make a list of at least three new words or phrases you have learnt from each video.

FILMMAKER MEAGAN CIGNOLI
upsize her career

2. Think of what the two types of creativity exemplified by the women in these videos and answer these questions:

-What do they have in common?

-What are the differences between them?

- What is your reaction to their work?

Prepare to share your answers with other students in class.

3. Take part in this forum:

"Creative person of the year" forum

7. "The Neuroscience of Genius, Creativity and Improvisation"

Watch this video and do the activity. We'll check the answers in class.



The Neuroscience of Genius, Creativity, and Improvisation, with Heather Berlin


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4anaU6rdU1Q

Say if these statements are true or false according to Heather Berlin, and correct the false ones.

Her approach is to study genius as a unified phenomenon.
FALSE: What they do is to break this concept down to its constituent parts and try to understand the neural mechanisms that drive those things.
It is impossible to quantify creativity.
FALSE: She said "it's been actually quite a problem how to quantify creativity" SO FAR
When people are being creative, their conscious brain is highly active.
???? : When we have our conscious brain highly active it's kind of supressing a lot of what's going on outside on oneself.
Self-awareness is activated when someone is being creative.
FALSE: People are being creative when the part of their brain that has to do with the sense of self-awareness is turned down.
In improvising jazz musicians and rappers the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is especially active.
FALSE: These artist have a decreased activation in that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that has to do with self-awareness.
The medial prefrontal cortex responds to outside stimuli.
FALSE: It's coming from within'. It's stimulus independant.
There are similarities in brain functioning when dreaming and when being creative.
TRUE
A scanner’s loud clicking sound was used by the speaker in an experiment.
FALSE: They picked a beat that matches the clicking beat in the scanner, so that it's not so distracting.
In this experiment, the participants were asked to ignore external input.
FALSE: During the experiment, they show the participants random images and give'em real-time audience feedback, in order to reproduce a real world situation.
When someone is being creative, the executive neuron network is turned off.

Intruder, me gusta mucho este tópic!!!. Eres profesor de inglés o algo?.

Soy muy curioso con los idiomas, siempre estoy trasteando con diccionarios, para aprender palabas nuevas.

Intruder escribió:

Shanks escribió:Exemple = example

Thank you Shanks!

Never let me walk alone...

Thank you = Ta (Scouse, pronunciado taaa)

Shanks escribió:

Intruder escribió:

Shanks escribió:Exemple = example

Thank you Shanks!

Never let me walk alone...

Thank you = Ta (Scouse, pronunciado taaa)

Taaa laaa

jojomojo escribió:

Shanks escribió:

Intruder escribió:

Shanks escribió:Exemple = example

Thank you Shanks!

Never let me walk alone...

Thank you = Ta (Scouse, pronunciado taaa)

Taaa laaa

'S'right, luv.

thespidersfrommars escribió:Intruder, me gusta mucho este tópic!!!. Eres profesor de inglés o algo?.

Soy muy curioso con los idiomas, siempre estoy trasteando con diccionarios, para aprender palabas nuevas.

Muchas gracias, me apunté este año al nivel C2.1 de la Escuela Oficial de Idiomas, y ha habido dos factores que me llevaron a abrir el hilo....

1) El elevado contenido audiovisual del curso, y la mala organización de la web que usa la escuela (moodle), que me dificulta encontrar los contenidos con rapidez.
2) Mi ordenador está empezando a fallar, y a veces me ha dejado colgado, y aquí en el foro voy creando una especie de "back-up" ordenado..........menudo invento......utilizar el foro azkena como aula de estudio...blas estará satisfecho....

Y hay un tercer beneficio, no buscado inicialmente.... pero caído del cielo.......because here are angels like Jojo and Shanks helping me with my homework...

Intruder escribió:"Creative Person of the Year" forum

After watching the videos in chapter 6, imagine that the two women who appear in them are the finalists in a visual arts competition called "Creative Person of the Year". Its purpose is to bring to the fore the achievements of original  creators whose work is considered to be of high quality and social relevance.

Post a message on the forum supporting one of the candidates and giving reasons for your choice. Alternatively, you may respond to someone else's post.

My post will be:

I’ve seen a selection of Sheba Chhachhi’s best works and found them absolutely
captivating,
eye-catching,
meaningful,
touching,
soul-moving.....

I'm pretty convinced that Chhachhi deserves all our praise and admiration for her mastery. Nevertheless, I have seen many photographic exhibitions or installations  covering  the same topics – ethnicities, environment, feminist demonstrations, women at work -  in the past. In other words,  there’s nothing new to me.

On the other hand, It is a fact that Meagan Cignoli has created and succesfully developed a brand new category in visual arts: the short-form vídeo, thus reflecting  a higher level of creativity than Chhachhi’s.

No matter what was the goal every artist looked for, given this is a creativity contest, I have no hesitation in voting for Cignoli and encourage you all to do the same.

On the other hand, It …. = no capital letter after a comma

You've got a pretty impressive vocabulary.

Good luck with your assignments.

Shanks escribió:On the other hand, It …. = no capital letter after a comma

Damn keyboard! Thanks for the warning! and congrats for yesterday's match..

jojomojo escribió:You've got a pretty impressive vocabulary.

Good luck with your assignments.

Thank you! Congrats for yesterday's match!

Activities to do by October 27

Here are the activities you need to do this week:

-Start reading Part I of Harari's book and answering the questions on the worksheet. You'll find it in the 21 Lessons for the 21st-Century section of Moodle (inside the activity book). The deadline to finish this is November 10.

-From Topic 2: Hopes and fears, do the activities in chapters 1.2, 1.3. 1.4 and 2.

-Finish the exercises from Keynote Proficient, Unit 1 and start Unit 2.

Have a good week.

Topic 2: Activity book

1. Optimism and pessimism: speaking
1.2. "Is our brain hard-wired to be optimistic?": listening
Watch this video:

"Is our brain hard-wired to be optimistic?"



Answer the questions:

1.What is the neurological reason why the optimism bias exists?

The optimism bias is our tendency to underestimate the likelihood of negative events (diseases, accidents), overestimating the likelihood of positive events (economic or professional success). People learn quite well when we get them good information. However, when we get people unexpected negative information, they don’t learn as much. So, there’s a clear change in how you learn when you get positive and negative information. As a result of that, you then generate this optimistic bias. You go throught the world getting positive and negative information, you learn a little bit more from the positive than from the negative, and so that creates the optimism bias expectations.
When you encode information that is worse from expected, the frontal parts of your brain are not encoding it as precisely, it’s noisier, so to speak, than when you’re encoding information that is better than expected.

2. How is the optimistic bias compensated for?

People tend to be optimistic about their own health. However, they think that despair is a danger for humanity, and they’re anxious about the health of their loved ones. And those things impact very much on their likelihood to comply with the correct behaviour.

3. According to what is said in the video, is optimism beneficial or detrimental in a crisis?

Optimism bias can benefit us in a crisis. Underestimating our risks can have positive effects on our mental health, such as reducing our anxiety, which even makes us more likely to comply with new rules.

4. How can this bias be used to change people's behaviour?

Understanding how this optimism bias works is key to influencing people’s behaviour. And it may also helps us be better prepared for some of the challenges thay gonna lay ahead.
We can use this bias to change behaviour.
Highlight the positive, instead of focusing on the negative
It is very difficult to change your perceptions, even if you want to, it’s almost impossible, but you can use it to change your behaviour. You can say “I know my perception is probably wrong, I can’t change it, but I can, given that, change behaviours.

Topic 2: Activity book
1. Optimism and pessimism: speaking

1.3. An optimistic vision of the future: listening and reading
Listen to an interview with Bina Venkataraman, the author of  The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age. Make notes about the main ideas in the recording, and then compare them with the summary on the website.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/science-and-technology/2019/10/16/an-optimistic-vision-of-the-future

Do you agree with the advice the speaker gives? Do you think it is useful? Prepare to share your opinion with other students in class.

summary on the website:
Author Bina Venkataraman understands the temptation to keep doing what we’ve always done, even if we’re pretty sure it’s not the best approach. She’s done it herself.

A few years ago, she was hiking in the Hudson Valley in New York, a place she knew was loaded with Lyme disease. She didn’t wear tick repellent. And even when she found a rash on the back of her leg, she didn’t do anything about it.

“It didn't look like the telltale bullseye you associate with a tick bite,” she said.

Eight months later, her knee swelled up to the size of a grapefruit.

“I had a really bad case of Lyme disease that took months to treat and required me to go on I.V. antibiotics,” Venkataraman said. “I think we're all prone to this kind of thinking. We can see clear warning signs, but sometimes we can't exactly follow them.”

Her new book, "The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age," has concrete ideas for how we can avoid making this kind of mistake, not only in our own lives, but in our professional lives, for the sake of the planet. Our inclination to think short-term is exactly what is keeping us from acting to stop climate change, she said.

Venkataraman is director of global policy initiatives at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and a lecturer in MIT's department of science, technology and society. She advised the Obama administration on climate change innovation, and, before that, wrote for The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

One of the examples she gives for how we can combat short-term thinking comes from the United Kingdom, where there was an effort to reduce the number of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions written by doctors.

Researchers found that it was effective to identify doctors who were prescribing antibiotics inappropriately and send letters telling them that they were doing a worse job than their peers. The letters were written by high-profile British leaders.

“It changes the norms and the expectations for their behavior,” she said.

For business leaders and politicians, Venkataraman said role-playing games are helpful for taking on “imaginative empathy.”

Another idea is to write letters to someone 50 years in the future.

“A niece, a nephew, a godchild, yourself,” she said. “And take on the perspective of that imagined person in the future and try to put yourself in that place.”

Virtual reality could also help people understand, for example, what it means to swim around a dead coral reef. It is a vivid experience of what is likely to happen if we fail to act on climate change, Venkataraman said.

To change our behavior, we need to think of clean air and water as shared heirlooms, she said.

“The national parks are an example of how you can create institutions — funding, norms, ways to protect them,” she said. “Then each generation uses them so that those heirlooms become part of the cultural identity of a society.”

Venkataraman calls herself an "engaged optimist" because she believes there is still a bright future to invest in.

"And I believe we can make choices to make that future happen," she said.

Topic 2: Activity book

1. Optimism and pessimism: speaking
1.4. "Cheer Up: Life Only Gets Better": reading

Reading:

Cheer Up: Life Only Gets Better activity with key
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cTzOaSYnqZxJ4xz3kL3YZr0NBBf0p4Oc/view

Here is a better scan of the same text, without the key:

Cheer Up

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qDE8H5MJCgZLJ_rCtIRNegl6eoI8defl/view

Topic 2: Activity book
2. Facing your fears: "Why I live in mortal dread of public speaking"

Watch the video and do the activity:

https://agora-eoi.xtec.cat/eoi-hospitalet/moodle/mod/book/view.php?id=65160&chapterid=1043

Activity (Keynote Proficient)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x3ozSGMV2ygMwzTNFW5kRsLgKjSs6cgP/view

Key
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XyiO_TH08N8UcP3NEwl5pr2r-Xt8zQv7/view

Room for answers previous port

Activities to do by November 3

This week you need to do the following activities:

-Topic 2 activity book: 2.2 and 2.3.

-Also in Topic 2, but outside the activity book, read the instructions to do the oral presentation "How I Overcame a Fear". The dealine is November 17. Post your audio/video as soon as you're ready, and if you have technical questions on how to use Flipgrid, please ask in the Student's Forum on Moodle. I'll answer if no one else does.

-Go on reading Part I of Harari's book, and doing the activity about it. The dealine is November 10.

-Carry on with the Keynote Proficient assignments from Unit 2.

Have a good week.

2. Facing your fears: "Why I live in mortal dread of public speaking"
2.1. Facing your fears: speaking

1.  How do you interpret this picture? What idea is it trying to convey?


 
2. Look at some suggestions to get out of your comfort zone and talk about them in groups. Which ones would you be prepared to put into practice

Suggestions:

https://agora-eoi.xtec.cat/eoi-hospitalet/moodle/mod/book/view.php?id=65160&chapterid=1310

2. Facing your fears: "Why I live in mortal dread of public speaking"

2.2. Phobias: speaking, listening and reading

A) Answer these questions:

1. How would you define a phobia?

2. Have you ever been phobic? Or anyone you know? Tell your partner how you/ that person felt

3. Why do phobias exist? What are the underlying causes?

4. Is it possible to cure a phobia? What methods can be used to try to manage irrational fears?



B) Now watch this video. What answers does it give to questions 3 and 4 above?




B) Watch this video. Have you ever felt the same way as the woman in it? What do you think about the therapy she went throught?



D) Make a list of 10 adjective/collocations/idioms you may use to describe how a person feels in a phobic situation

e.g. anxious, a bundle of nerves



E) Read this text, make sure you understand it thoroughly and prepare 5 comprehension questions to test a classmate. Don't make the questions too easy!

Figuring out phobia
https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug05/figuring

Researchers are using neuroimaging techniques to delve into the neurobiological underpinnings of phobias, with a view to improving treatments.

By Lea Winerman

More than 10 million adults in the United States suffer from some sort of phobia, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. These exaggerated fears--whether of spiders, needles, snakes, heights, social situations or even public spaces--can become so all-consuming that they interfere with daily life.

The good news is that over the past several decades, psychologists and other researchers have developed some effective behavioral and pharmacological treatments for phobia, as well as technological interventions.

Now researchers are taking the next step, says psychologist and phobia researcher Arne Öhman, PhD, of the clinical neuroscience department at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. They are using neuroimaging techniques like positron-emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand the brain circuitry that underlies phobia and what happens in the brain during treatment.

They're finding that the amygdala--a small, almond-shaped structure in the middle of the brain's temporal lobes--is a key player, and that malfunctions of the amygdala and associated brain structures may give rise to many phobias. Still, researchers have yet to work out the details of how this happens.

"As soon as we know more about what is happening in the brain, then we can fine-tune treatment," Öhman says.

The biology of fear

All phobias are anxiety disorders, lumped in the same class as post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder, among others. And anxiety disorders are, fundamentally, based on fear.

"What we know about the neurocircuitry and brain basis of fear originally comes from animal research," says psychiatrist Scott Rauch, MD, of Harvard Medical School. Indeed, more than 30 years of research has examined the neurological underpinnings of fear in laboratory rats.

The workhorse paradigm has been the fear conditioning/fear extinction model, Rauch explains. In this model, researchers condition rats to fear a neutral stimulus, like a particular tone, by pairing it with something aversive, like an electric shock. Then, later, the researchers can "extinguish" this fear by repeatedly playing the tone without the accompanying shock. The researchers can use electrodes to record electrophysiological activity in the rats' brains during the fear conditioning or extinction process.

"Using this paradigm, in the past 25 years we've been able to pinpoint pretty precisely where to look for fear in the brain," says New York University psychologist Joseph LeDoux, PhD, a pioneer of this type of research.

What they've pinpointed is the amygdala. LeDoux and others have found that there is a double pathway leading to and from the amygdala. One path leads directly from a frightening sensory stimulus--like the sight of a snake or the sound of a loud crash--to the amygdala in just a few thousandths of a second. A second, slower pathway travels first to the higher cortex before reaching the amygdala.

"The shorter pathway is fast but imprecise," LeDoux explains. "If a bomb goes off, you might not quickly be able to evaluate any of the perceptual qualities of the sound, but the intensity is enough to trigger the amygdala. If you knew a lot about bombs, then through the cortex pathway you could evaluate the danger, but it will take longer."

The fast pathway, then, is the brain's early warning system, explains LeDoux, and leads to physical manifestations of fear like a racing heart and sweaty palms. The second pathway can override the first, and either lead to conscious feelings of fear or no fear. Studies like these have led researchers to believe that phobias and other anxiety disorders are caused by some type of dysfunction in the amygdala and related brain areas.

Moving to humans

The detail and scale of what researchers have learned from animal experiments is extraordinary, according to Rauch. "But the disadvantage is that you have to extrapolate from what you've learned to humans, and particularly to humans with anxiety disorders," he says.

So about a decade ago, researchers began to try to examine the analogous processes in people, using brain-imaging technology such as PET and fMRI.

What they've found has already led to a greater understanding of many anxiety disorders, particularly obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Fewer studies have focused on phobias, Rauch says: "The data there are a little less developed, and the results less cohesive." The first studies, from the early and mid 1990s, were symptom-provocation studies: Researchers would show, say, a snake-phobic person a snake or a picture of a snake, and then use PET scans to examine the brain's reaction.

"Heuristically, it was appealing to believe that these phobic disorders would be related to abnormalities in the fast-track through the amygdala," Rauch says. But in fact the earliest studies--like a 1995 study by Rauch in the Archives of General Psychiatry (Vol. 52, No. 1, pages 20-28)--didn't find any evidence of amygdala activation, although some cortical areas that communicate with the amygdala were active.

As measurement and experimental techniques have developed over the past decade, though, the findings have developed as well. For example, fMRI works more quickly than do PET scans, so researchers can examine the brain's reaction to stimuli in a narrower time scale, Rauch explains. In a 2003 study from Neuroscience Letters (Vol. 348, No. 1, pages 29-32), for example, psychologist Wolfgang Miltner, PhD, and his colleagues at Friedrich Schiller University in Germany used fMRI to examine spider phobics as they viewed pictures of spiders, snakes and mushrooms. This time the researchers found that the amygdala was more active in the spider phobics than in control participants.

Other researchers have found that "masking" the phobia stimulus, so that participants see it but are not consciously aware of it, produces interesting results. In a 2004 study in Emotion (Vol. 4, No. 4, pages 340-353), Öhman and his colleagues flashed 16 snake and spider phobics with pictures of a snake and a spider, each followed by a neutral picture. The presentation was so fast that the participants were not consciously aware that they had seen the snake or spider. Next, the researchers waited long enough for the participants to consciously register the feared stimuli before presenting the neutral ones.

The researchers found that when the timing did not allow conscious awareness, the amygdala responded to both the phobic and fear-relevant stimuli (fear-relevant stimuli were snake pictures for spider phobics, and vice versa). But when the timing did allow awareness, the amygdala responded only to the phobic stimuli. This suggests, Öhman says, that the amygdala responds immediately to anything that might be threatening, but that with more time to process other areas of the brain suppress the amygdala's initial response.

Finally, some researchers have begun to look particularly at what happens in the brain during and after phobia treatment. Psychologists Tomas Furmark, PhD, Mats Fredrikson, PhD, and their colleagues at Uppsala University in Sweden used PET scans to examine the brain activity of 18 people with social phobia as the people spoke in front of a group. Then, one-third of the participants received nine weeks of cognitive-behavioral therapy, one-third received the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor Citalopram and one-third received no treatment. The researchers tested the patients again, using the same public speaking task, at nine weeks and again after one year. They found that the activation in the amygdala and related cortical areas at nine weeks could predict which people's symptoms would improve after one year.

Though all of these findings are shaping researchers' understanding of the parts of the brain that give rise to phobia, the picture is far from complete.

"This is a critical area of research for the future," says Rauch.

2. Facing your fears: "Why I live in mortal dread of public speaking"   ANSWERS

2.2. Phobias: speaking, listening and reading

A) Answer these questions:

1. How would you define a phobia?
Marked fear or anxiety about an specific object or situation. Extreme or irrational fear of, or aversion to, something.
Criteria:
The phobic object or situation almost always provokes immediate fear or anxiety.
The phobic object or situation is avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety.
The fear or anxiety is out of proportion to the actual danger posed by the specific object or situation and to the sociocultural context.
The fear, anxiety or avoidance is persistent typically lasting for 6 months or more.
The fear, anxiety or avoidance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning.
The disturbance is not better explained by symptoms of another mental disorder


2. Have you ever been phobic? Or anyone you know? Tell your partner how you/ that person felt
Marked fear or anxiety about an specific object or situation

3. Why do phobias exist? What are the underlying causes?

4. Is it possible to cure a phobia? What methods can be used to try to manage irrational fears?
On one hand, there is the Exposure Therapy which goal is to change your response to the phobia stimulus, by slowly and gradually exposing you to it. On the other hand, there is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which goal is to better understand your thoughts and feelings about your phobia stimulus and work with you to change any of those unfounded beliefs. CBT also utilizes some exposure techniques to prove to you that the unfounded belief that you had is in fact not true. Now the final treatment option is medication  


B) Now watch this video. What answers does it give to questions 3 and 4 above?

Spoiler:

3. Why do phobias exist? What are the underlying causes?
Modern psychoanalysts still believe that phobias can be caused by secret internal conflicts like this = Conflicting fear + Desire.
Another theory is that at least some fears are innate.The theory is that fear of spiders and snakes gave us an evolutionary edge.
"We may not know the root cause of phobias, but we know how they develop"

4. Is it possible to cure a phobia? What methods can be used to try to manage irrational fears?
They can be treated with therapy and medication. Simple phobias are easier to treat.
The NHS recommends Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), with a therapist helping you to gradually get used to whatever it is you fear.


B) Watch this video. Have you ever felt the same way as the woman in it? What do you think about the therapy she went throught?

The treatment involves an unconventional blend of mainstream pyschology and more experimental techniques. The aim is to uncover the key event that triggered Sarah's fear of flying. Tapping on acupressure points claims to remove negative emotions.

Spoiler:

D) Make a list of 10 adjective/collocations/idioms you may use to describe how a person feels in a phobic situation

e.g. anxious, a bundle of nerves
it's pure terror
she suffers panic attacks when she gets on the plane
fear of death
I'm terribly afraid of flying even though I know it's so damn safe!
These exaggerated fears
Your brain's stuck in tiger attack mode
tantrum
flight or freeze
feeling shaky
sweaty palms
constant state of anxiety
spooked
freaked out


E) Read this text, make sure you understand it thoroughly and prepare 5 comprehension questions to test a classmate. Don't make the questions too easy!

to delve into something = to search in order to find a thing or information:
underpinning = support, strength, or the basic structure of something:
to pinpoint = to find out or say the exact position in space or time of something:


a) Why is it so upsetting and uncomfortable to suffer any phobia?
Answer: because it can become so all-consuming that they interfere with daily life.
b) What kind of techniques are being used by researchers to develop new treatments against phobia?
Answer:They are using neuroimaging techniques like positron-emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand the brain circuitry that underlies phobia and what happens in the brain during treatment.
c) What's the name of the part of the brain which is accountable for many phobias according to researchers?
Answer: They're finding that the amygdala--a small, almond-shaped structure in the middle of the brain's temporal lobes--is a key player, and that malfunctions of the amygdala and associated brain structures may give rise to many phobias.
d) What kind of phobias were the most used to examine human brain's reaction to stimulous?
Answer: Snakes and spiders
e) Could you describe basically how first studies with human were performed? What did they do with them?
Answer: The first studies, from the early and mid 1990s, were symptom-provocation studies: Researchers would show, say, a snake-phobic person a snake or a picture of a snake, and then use PET scans to examine the brain's reaction.

2. Facing your fears: "Why I live in mortal dread of public speaking"

2.3. A BBC podcast about fear

Grown Up Land: a BBC podcast about fear

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Jpw-F7jKYwI-BeemYe8aGwOsGpTTLip/view


Worksheet:

Grown Up Land BBC podcast: “Fear”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p069ry2g
Listening comprehension activity (minute 0 to 9:44)
Listen up to minute 5:45 and do the following tasks:

Make a list of things that the speakers (including the children at the start) say they’re scared of.









Try to understand what event made one of the speakers “overly desentitized”




B) Listen to the “spooky clip” beginning at minute 5:45 approximately. What does the speaker recall doing?


C) Minutes 7:00-9:44:
What scary movies are mentioned? What is said about them?



What is the meaning of monsters according to the speakers?



D) What do these words and phrases from the podcast mean?
1 - I’m gonna spook you big time
2 - It freaks me out
3 - PTSD
4 - adrenaline kicks in
5 - creepy

2. Facing your fears: "Why I live in mortal dread of public speaking" ANSWERS

2.3. A BBC podcast about fear

Grown Up Land: a BBC podcast about fear

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Jpw-F7jKYwI-BeemYe8aGwOsGpTTLip/view


Worksheet:

Grown Up Land BBC podcast: “Fear”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p069ry2g
Listening comprehension activity (minute 0 to 9:44)
Listen up to minute 5:45 and do the following tasks:

Make a list of things that the speakers (including the children at the start) say they’re scared of.
Harry Potter
people robbing me
snakes
heights
mice
spiders
aquatic dinosaurs (big things underwater)
bops?
not getting up properly on the ladder?
dying alone
horror movies
anticipation of future events
too many people in theaters


Try to understand what event made one of the speakers “overly desentitized”
When she was 9 she escaped the huge fire that killed thousands of people....
Being very fond of horror movies during childhood, being obsessed with them...


B) Listen to the “spooky clip” beginning at minute 5:45 approximately. What does the speaker recall doing?
she really wanted to experience fear
sleep up a tree on her own at night
and record the sound...
she was laying down with her headphones on, listening to this...
suddenly she thought, can I hear some breathing?
she was absolutely convinced she could here someone breathing
she was terrified
looking back, listening back to the recording, she realized....

C) Minutes 7:00-9:44:
What scary movies are mentioned? What is said about them?
The shining, because it's someone you love, your father, your husband, becoming someone you don't recognise who tries to kill you...
Scream 3, it's got a film within a film..
Scream 1, it's genious, excellent,
It follows?, analogy for LSD, analogy for sexology...



What is the meaning of monsters according to the speakers?
All monsters are manifestation of fears, for instance witches are reactions to women power....


D) What do these words and phrases from the podcast mean?
1 - I’m gonna spook you big time = I'm gonna frighten you so much
2 - It freaks me out = it makes me feel so emotional
3 - PTSD = anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.
4 - adrenaline kicks in = adrenaline starts to have an effect
5 - creepy = making you feel frightened

to spook = to frighten a person or animal
big time = if you do something big time, you do it to a great degree:
freak (sb) out = to become or cause someone to become extremely emotional:
PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) = an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.
kick in = to start to have an effect or to happen:
creepy = strange or unnatural and making you feel frightened:

21 Lessons for the 21st Century Part I: “The Technological Challenge”

Prepare to share your answers with other students.

Chapter 1, Disillusionment

1-According to Harari, what has the world become disillusioned with?
2-What factors does he argue have contributed to this disillusionment?
3-What does Harari mean by “a liberal buffet” (p. 23, first paragraph)?
4-What is Harari’s alternative to disillusionment?

Chapter 2, Work

5-According to Harari, is there an area where humans will always outperform machines?
6-What does he say about the importance of integrated networks (pp. 32-35)
7-What does he argue the role of algorithms will be in artistic creation?
8-On p.49 Harari argues that new social and economic models “should be guided by the principle of protecting humans rather than jobs.” What are his proposals to achieve this?

Chapter 3, Liberty
9-In this chapter, Harari questions the concept of “free will”. On what grounds?
10-Harari presents a future in which AI and Big Data will rule. What advantages and disadvantages of this situation does he point out?
11-What is the difference between intelligence and consciousness according to the author? Which is more important to him?

Chapter 4, Equality
12-How does Harari define “speciation”? How will it happen?
13-What is, according to him, “the most important political question of our era” (p. 97)?
14-How does he think this question might be solved?


Discussion: Are there any aspects of Harari’s reasoning in this part of the book that you disagree with? If so, tell your partners why and ask them their opinion.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century Part I: “The Technological Challenge”

Prepare to share your ANSWERS with other students.

Chapter 1, Disillusionment

1-According to Harari, what has the world become disillusioned with?
2-What factors does he argue have contributed to this disillusionment?
3-What does Harari mean by “a liberal buffet” (p. 23, first paragraph)?
4-What is Harari’s alternative to disillusionment?

Chapter 2, Work

5-According to Harari, is there an area where humans will always outperform machines?
6-What does he say about the importance of integrated networks (pp. 32-35)
7-What does he argue the role of algorithms will be in artistic creation?
8-On p.49 Harari argues that new social and economic models “should be guided by the principle of protecting humans rather than jobs.” What are his proposals to achieve this?

Chapter 3, Liberty
9-In this chapter, Harari questions the concept of “free will”. On what grounds?
10-Harari presents a future in which AI and Big Data will rule. What advantages and disadvantages of this situation does he point out?
11-What is the difference between intelligence and consciousness according to the author? Which is more important to him?

Chapter 4, Equality
12-How does Harari define “speciation”? How will it happen?
13-What is, according to him, “the most important political question of our era” (p. 97)?
14-How does he think this question might be solved?


Discussion: Are there any aspects of Harari’s reasoning in this part of the book that you disagree with? If so, tell your partners why and ask them their opinion.

Oh yes, I'm the great pretender.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century Part I: “The Technological Challenge”

Prepare to share your answers with other students. MY ANSWERS IN BLUE, BOOK EXCERPTS IN PURPLE

Chapter 1, Disillusionment

1. According to Harari, what has the world become disillusioned with?
In his point of wiev, many people all over the world have become increasingly disillusioned with the liberal story since the global financial crisis of 2008
Humankind is losing faith in the liberal story that dominated global  polítics in recent decades, exactly when the merger of infotech and biotech confronts us with the biggest challenges humankind has ever encountered.
Hovewer, since the global financial crisis of 2018 people all over the world have become increasingly disillusioned with the liberal story (13)
Many people have come now to see the liberal vision as either undesirable or unattainable.

2. What factors does he argue have contributed to this disillusionment?
Harari highlights two major factors. In first place he noticed a growing fear of irrelevance amongst ordinary people because they can’t keep pace with the introduction of IA as well as other technological changes which seem out of their control and may affect their future welfare.
As a second factor, Harari points out that there is an increasing loss of faith in globalisation because many people in industrialised countries feel they have lost influence with the process
Ordinary people may not understand artificial intelligence and  biotechnology , but they can sense the future is passing them by. In 2018 the common person feels increasingly irrelevant.(17) The liberal story was the story of ordinary people. How can it remain relevant to a world of networked algorithms? (17), Now the masses fear irrelevance, and they’re frantic to use their remaining political power before it is too late. (17)
Most people who voted for Trump and Brexit didn’t reject the liberal package in its entirety – they lost faith mainly in its globalising part. They still believe in democracy, free markets, human rights and social responsability, but they think these fine ideas can stop at the border. (19)
...this might imply that the present crisis of faith is less severe than its predecessors. Any liberal who is driven to dispair by the events of the last few years should just recollect how much worse things looked in 1918, 1938 or 1968. What we are seeing in recent years is not a complete abandonment of the liberal story. Rather, we are witnessing a shift from a “set-menu approach” to a “buffet mentality” (21)
3. What does Harari mean by “a liberal buffet” (p. 23, first paragraph)?
By “liberal buffet” Harari meant a situation where different political movements or national governments would pick only those features or components of liberalism which suit their goals or interests best, leaving the rest aside.
What is now common to populist and nationalist movements throughout the world i sthat even if they describe themselves as “anti-liberal”, none of them rejects liberalism wholesale. Rather, they reject the set-menu approach, and want to pick and choose their own dishes from a liberal buffet. (23)
Harari summarises the 6 main components of liberalism.
The liberal story that dominated the world in recent decades argued that there are stroong and essential links between the 6 components. You can’t have one without the other.

4. What is Harari’s alternative to disillusionment?
During this time of transition from a liberal system to a new one, Harari reccomends that we’d better stay in a state of bewilderment rather than feeling constantly overwhelmed.
We are still in the nihillist moment of disillusionemnt and anger, after people have lost faith in the old stories but before they have embraced a new one. So what next? The first step is to tone down the prophecies of doom, and swith from panic mode to bewilderment. Panic is a form of hubris. It comes from the smug feeling that I know exactly where the world is heading – down. Bewildement is more humble, and therefore more clear-sighted.
Yuval believes that liberalism or other story who wishes to shape the future worldmake, it will  need not only to make sense of IA, Big Data algorythms and bioengineering – it will also need to incorporate them into a new meaningful narrative.(28)

Chapter 2, Work

5. According to Harari, is there an area where humans will always outperform machines?
He knows no such area.
We don’t know of any third field of activity – beyond the physical and the cognitive – where humans will always retain a secure edge.(30)

6. What does he say about the importance of integrated networks (pp. 32-35)
He states that it might make pefect sense to replace humans with computers in some activities such as healthcare in order to benefit from the enormous advantages of connectivity and updateability given by integrated networks, since computers are way easier to integrate than humans.
Since humans are individuals, it is difficult to connect them to one another and to make sure that hey are all up to date. In contrast, computers aren’t individuals, and it’s easy to integrate them into a single flexible network. Hence what we are facing is not the replacement of millions of indivudual human workers by millions of individual robots and computers. Rather, individual humans are likely to be replaced by an integrated network. (32)
This potential advantatges of connectivity and updateability are so huge that at least in some lines of work it might make sense to replace all humans with computers, even if individually some humans still do a better job than the machines.(33)
Hence it would be madness to block automation in fields such as transport and healthcare just in order to protect human jobs. After all, what we ultimately ought to protect is humans  - not jobs. Redundant drivers and doctors will just have to find something else to do.(35)

7. What does he argue the role of algorithms will be in artistic creation?
As long as emotions raise from a biochemical process, it is foreseeable that algorithms could one day analyse biometric data streaming from sensors on and inside our bodies and calculate the emotional impact a particular sound is likely to have on us. As a result, by using massive biometric databases harvested from millions of people, the algorithm could know which biochemical buttoms to press in order to produce massive hits.
Emotions are not some mystical phenomenon – they are a result of a biochemical process. Hence, in the not too distant future a machine-learning algorithm could analyse the biometric data streaming from sensors on and inside your body, determine your personality type and your changing moods, and calculating the emotional impact that a particular song – even a particular musical key – is likely to have on you.(36)
Within a few decades, an algorithm that goes over millions of musical experiences might learn to predict how particular inputs result in particular outputs. (37)
Of all forms of art, music is probably the most susceptible to Big Data analyse , because both inputs and outputs lend themselves to precise mathematical depiction.(36)
By using massive biometric databases garnered from millions of people, the algorithm could know which biochemical buttoms to press in order to produce a global hit which would set everybody swinging like crazy on the dance floors.(39)
Will all this result in great art? That depends on the definition of art....

8. On p.49 Harari argues that new social and economic models “should be guided by the principle of protecting humans rather than jobs.” What are his proposals to achieve this?
He first highlights universal basic income. UBI, which proposes that governmentrs tax the billionaires and corporations controlling the algorithms and robots, and use the money to provide every person with a generous stipend covering his or her basic needs.
He also thinks it could be worth to widen the range of human activities that are considered to be “jobs” (parents who take care of children)
Alternatively, governments could subside universal basic services rather than income. Instead of giving money to people, the government may subside free education, free healthcare, free transport and so forth...
Despite the appearance of many new human jobs, we may nevertheless witness the rise of a new useless class (41)
In addition, no remaining human job will ever be safe from the treat of future automation, because machine learning and robotics will continue to improve (42).
Creating new jobs and retraining people to fill them will not be a one-off effort. The AI revolution will be a cascade of even-bigger disruptions.(44).
If despite all our efforts a significant percentage of humankind is pushed out of the job market, we would have to explore new models for post work societies, post-work economies and post work politics.(47)
In order to cope with the unprecedented technological and economic disruptions of the 21st Century, we need to develop new social and economic models as soon as possible. These models should be guided by the principle of protecting humans rather than jobs (49).
What we should focus on is providing for people’s basic needs and protecting their social status and self-worth. (49)
One new model, which is gaining increasing attention, is universal basic income. UBI proposes that governmentrs tax the billionaires and corporations controlling the algorithms and robots, and use the money to provide every person with a generous stipend covering his or her basic needs.
A related idea proposes to widen the range of human activities that are considered to be “jobs” (parents who takke care of children)
Alternatvely, governments could subside universal basic services rather than income. Instead of giving money to people, the government may subside free education, free healthcare, free transport and so forth...
It is debatable whether it is better to provide people with universal basic income or universal basic services . Both options have advantages and drawbacks (50) The real problem is defining what “universal” and “basic” actually mean.(51).

Chapter 3, Liberty
9. In this chapter, Harari questions the concept of “free will”. On what grounds?
So far it’s been assumed that human feelings reflect a mysterious and profound free will, on which democracy was built.
Instead, research shows that  feelings are in fact biochemical mechanisms that all mammals and birds use in order to quickly calculate probabilities of survival and reproduction. Feelings aren’t based on intuition, inspiration or freedom – they are based on calculation.
As soon as the biotech revolution merges with the infotech revolution, it will produce Big Data algorithms that can monitor and understand our  feelings much better that we can, and then authority will probably swift from humans to computers. Our illusion of free will then probably vanish.
However, for better or worse, elections and referendums are not about what we think. They are about what we feel.
Democracy assumes that human feelings reflect a mysterious and profound free will, that this free will is the ultimate source of autority, and that while some people are more intelligent than others, all humans are equallly free.”What does your heart tell you?((59)
This reliance on the heart might prove to be the Achilles heel of liberal democracy. For once somebody gains the technological ability to hack and manipulate the human heart, democratic politics will mutate into a emotional puppet show. (60)
Scientific insights into the way our brains and bodies work suggest that our feelings are not some uniquely human spiritual quality, and they do not reflect any kind of free will. Rather, feelings are biochemical mechanisms that all mammals and birs use in order to quickly calculate probabilities of survival and reproduction. Feelings aren’t based on intuition, inspiration or freedom – they are based on calculation (60).
We usually fail to realise that feelings are in fact calculations, because the rapid process of calculation occurs far below our threshold of awareness......so we erroneously believe that our fear of snakes, our choice of sexual mates or our opinions about the EU are the result of some mysterious free will.(61)
However, soon computer algorithms could give you better counsel than human feelings.......and then free wil will likely be exposed as a myth, an d  liberalism might lose its practical advantages.
For we are now at th econfluence of two immense revolutions. On the one hand biologists are deciphering the mysteries of the human body, and in particular, of the brain and of human feelings. At the same time computer scientists are giving us unprecedented data processing power. When the biotech revolution  merges with the infotech revolution, it will produce Big Data algorithms that can monitor and understand my feelings much better that I can, and then authority will probably swift from humans to computers. My illusion of free will is likely to disintegrate.(62)

10. Harari presents a future in which AI and Big Data will rule. What advantages and disadvantages of this situation does he point out?
He points out that the algorithm will help us making not only daily decisions but also the most important ones in our lives. As a consequence of this we will gradually lose our ability to make decisions for ourselves, falling into a state of dependancy on algorithms.
Worse than this, as governments and corporations succeed in hacking the human operating system, we will be exposed to precision-guided manipulation, advertising and propaganda. It may become so easy to manipulate our opinions and emotions that we will be forced to rely on algorithms.
As another advantage, Harari also underlines that Computer algorithms have not been shaped by natural selection, and they have neither emotions nor gut instincts. Hence in moments of crisis they could follow ethical guidellines much better than humans.
AI makes it possible to process enormous amounts of information centrally. Indeed, AI might make centralised systems far more efficient that diffused systems, because  machine learning works better the more information it can analyse (82)
The main handicap of authoritarian regimes in the 20th century  - the attempt to concentrate all information in one place – might become their decisive advantage in the 21st century. As algorithms come to know us so well, authoritarian governments could gain absolute control over their citizens, and resistance to such regimes might be utterly impossible.
Democracy in its present form cannot survive the merger of biotech and infotech. Either democracy will succesfully reinvent itself in a radically new form, or humans will come to live in digital dictatorships.(82)
Even if democracy manages to adapt and survive, people might become the victims of new kinds of opression and discrimination. Already today more and more banks, corporations and institutions are using algorithms to analyse data and make decisions about us (loans...) When discrimination is directed against entire groups, such as women or blacks, these groups can organise and protest against their collective discrimination. But now an algorithm might discriminate against you personally, and you have  no idea why. Instead of just collective discrimination, in the 21st century we might face a growing problem of individual discrimination.
People will gladly share their information in order to get better recommendations – and eventually in order to get the algorithm to make decisions for them. ...
...and algorithm might help(65)
....such data could enable Netflix and Amazon to choose movies for us with uncanny precision, but it could also enable them to make for us the most important decisions in life – such as what to study, where to work ans who to marry .
But Amazon won’t have to be pefect. It just will need to be better in average than us humans....And that is not so difficult...Algorithms have lots of hitches, but we have no better alternative.(67)
As governments and corporations succeed in hacking the human operating system, we will be exposed to precision-guided manipulation, advertising and propaganda.
It may become so easy to manipulate our opinions and emotions that we will be forced to rely on algorithms.
Algorithms might gain authority because we will learn from experience to trust  them on more and more issues, and will gradually lose our ability to make decisions for ourselves.(google search, google maps)(68)
Once we begin to count on AI to decide what to study, where to work and who to marry, human life will cease to be a drama of decision-making. Democratic elections and free markets will make little sense. So would most religions and works of art. (70)
Computer algorithms have not been shaped by natural selection, and they have neither emotions nor gut instincts. Hence in moments of crisis they could follow ethical guidellines much better than humans.(74)
Indeed we may end up with a total surveillance regime that follows not just all our external activities and utterances, , but can even go under under our skin to observ our inner experiences(80)
AI makes it possible to process enormous amounts of information centrally. Indeed, AI might make centralised systems far more efficient that diffused systems, because  machine learning works better the more information it can analyse (82)
The main handicap of authoritarian regimes in the 20th century  - the attempt to concentrate all information in one place – might become their decisive advantage in the 21st century. As algorithms come to know us so well, authoritarian governments could gain absolute control over their citizens, and resistance to such regimes might be utterly impossible.
Democarcy in its present form cannot survive the merger of biotech and infotech. Either democracy will succesfully reinvent itself in a radically new form, or humans will come to live in digital dictatorships.(82)
Even if democracy manages to adapt and survive, people might become the victims of new kinds of opression and discrimination. Akeady today moer and more banks, corporations and institutions are using algorithms to analyse data and make decisions about us (loans...) (83)
When discrimination is directed against entire groups, such as women or blacks, these groups can organise and protest against their collective discrimination. But now an algorithm might discriminate against you personally, and you have  no idea why. Instead of just collective discrimination, in the 21st century we might face a growing problem of individual discrimination. (84)
Within a couple of decades, politicians might find themselves choosing from a menu written by AI (85)

11. What is the difference between intelligence and consciousness according to the author? Which is more important to him?
Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. Consciousness is the ability to feel things such as and anger pain, joy, love.
Consciousness seems to be much important to him because both humans and computers can have intelligence, but only humans can have conscience.
Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. Consciousness is the ability to feel things such as and anger pain, joy, love. We tend to confuse the two because in humans and other mammals intelligencew goes hand in hand with consciousness. Mammals solve most problems by feeling things. Computers, however, solve problems in a very different way.(85)
It seems unlikely that we could program conscious computers any time soon. Hence despite the immense power of AI, for the foreseeable future its usage will continue to depend to some extent on human consciousness. The danger is that if we invest too much in developing AI and too  little in developing human consciousness, the very sophisticated AI of computers might only serve to empower the natural stupidity of humans. (86)

Chapter 4, Equality
12. How does Harari define “speciation”? How will it happen?
Harari defines speciation as the divergence of humankind into different species or classes, as a result of AI combined with bioengineering.
Some groups increasingly monopolise the fruits of globalisation, while billions are left behind (91)
The two processes together – bioengineering coupled with the rise of AI – might therefore result in the separation of the humankind into a small class of superhumans and a massive underclass of useless Homo Sapiens.
Consequently, instead of globalisation resulting in global unity, it might actually result in “speciation”: the divergence of humankind into different species.Globalisation will unite the world horizontally by erasing national borders, but it will simultaneusly divide humanity vertically. (92)
If data becomes concentrated in too few hands – humankind will split into different species. (94)
If we want to prevent humankind from splitting into biological castes, the key question is: who owns the data? Does the data about my DNA, my brain and my life belong to me, to the government, to a corporation or to the human collective? (96)

13. What is, according to him, “the most important political question of our era” (p. 97)
According to him, it’s how ownership of data is going to be regulated
How do you regulate the ownership of data? This may well be the most important political question of our era (97)

14. How does he think this question might be solved?
He wonders if networked algotithms might form the frame for a global human community that could collectively own and manage all the data, and makes a call to engineers and scientists for a technical solution to enable this.
He wonders if networked algotithms might form the scaffolding for a global human community that could collectively own all the data and oversee the future development of life...(98)


Discussion: Are there any aspects of Harari’s reasoning in this part of the book that

Extract with answers only:

21 Lessons for the 21st Century Part I: “The Technological Challenge”

Prepare to share your answers with other students.

Chapter 1, Disillusionment

1. According to Harari, what has the world become disillusioned with?
In his point of wiev, many people all over the world have become increasingly disillusioned with the liberal story since the global financial crisis of 2008

2. What factors does he argue have contributed to this disillusionment?
Harari highlights two major factors. In first place he noticed a growing fear of irrelevance amongst ordinary people because they can’t keep pace with the introduction of IA as well as other technological changes which seem out of their control and may affect their future welfare.
As a second factor, Harari points out that there is an increasing loss of faith in globalisation because many people in industrialised countries feel they have lost influence with the process

3. What does Harari mean by “a liberal buffet” (p. 23, first paragraph)?
By “liberal buffet” Harari meant a situation where different political movements or national governments would pick only those features or components of liberalism which suit their goals or interests best, leaving the rest aside.

4. What is Harari’s alternative to disillusionment?
During this time of transition from a liberal system to a new one, Harari reccomends that we’d better stay in a state of bewilderment rather than feeling constantly overwhelmed.


Chapter 2, Work

5. According to Harari, is there an area where humans will always outperform machines?
He knows no such area.

6. What does he say about the importance of integrated networks (pp. 32-35)
He states that it might make pefect sense to replace humans with computers in some activities such as healthcare in order to benefit from the enormous advantages of connectivity and updateability given by integrated networks, since computers are way easier to integrate than humans.

7. What does he argue the role of algorithms will be in artistic creation?
As long as emotions raise from a biochemical process, it is foreseeable that algorithms could one day analyse biometric data streaming from sensors on and inside our bodies and calculate the emotional impact a particular sound is likely to have on us. As a result, by using massive biometric databases harvested from millions of people, the algorithm could know which biochemical buttoms to press in order to produce massive hits.

8. On p.49 Harari argues that new social and economic models “should be guided by the principle of protecting humans rather than jobs.” What are his proposals to achieve this?
He first highlights universal basic income. UBI, which proposes that governmentrs tax the billionaires and corporations controlling the algorithms and robots, and use the money to provide every person with a generous stipend covering his or her basic needs.
He also thinks it could be worth to widen the range of human activities that are considered to be “jobs” (parents who take care of children)
Alternatively, governments could subside universal basic services rather than income. Instead of giving money to people, the government may subside free education, free healthcare, free transport and so forth...

Chapter 3, Liberty
9. In this chapter, Harari questions the concept of “free will”. On what grounds?
So far it’s been assumed that human feelings reflect a mysterious and profound free will, on which democracy was built.
Instead, research shows that  feelings are in fact biochemical mechanisms that all mammals and birds use in order to quickly calculate probabilities of survival and reproduction. Feelings aren’t based on intuition, inspiration or freedom – they are based on calculation.
As soon as the biotech revolution merges with the infotech revolution, it will produce Big Data algorithms that can monitor and understand our  feelings much better that we can, and then authority will probably swift from humans to computers. Our illusion of free will then probably vanish.

10. Harari presents a future in which AI and Big Data will rule. What advantages and disadvantages of this situation does he point out?
He points out that the algorithm will help us making not only daily decisions but also the most important ones in our lives. As a consequence of this we will gradually lose our ability to make decisions for ourselves, falling into a state of dependancy on algorithms.
Worse than this, as governments and corporations succeed in hacking the human operating system, we will be exposed to precision-guided manipulation, advertising and propaganda. It may become so easy to manipulate our opinions and emotions that we will be forced to rely on algorithms.
As another advantage, Harari also underlines that Computer algorithms have not been shaped by natural selection, and they have neither emotions nor gut instincts. Hence in moments of crisis they could follow ethical guidellines much better than humans.
AI makes it possible to process enormous amounts of information centrally. Indeed, AI might make centralised systems far more efficient that diffused systems, because  machine learning works better the more information it can analyse (82)
The main handicap of authoritarian regimes in the 20th century  - the attempt to concentrate all information in one place – might become their decisive advantage in the 21st century. As algorithms come to know us so well, authoritarian governments could gain absolute control over their citizens, and resistance to such regimes might be utterly impossible.
Democracy in its present form cannot survive the merger of biotech and infotech. Either democracy will succesfully reinvent itself in a radically new form, or humans will come to live in digital dictatorships.(82)
Even if democracy manages to adapt and survive, people might become the victims of new kinds of opression and discrimination. Already today more and more banks, corporations and institutions are using algorithms to analyse data and make decisions about us (loans...) When discrimination is directed against entire groups, such as women or blacks, these groups can organise and protest against their collective discrimination. But now an algorithm might discriminate against you personally, and you have  no idea why. Instead of just collective discrimination, in the 21st century we might face a growing problem of individual discrimination.

11. What is the difference between intelligence and consciousness according to the author? Which is more important to him?
Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. Consciousness is the ability to feel things such as and anger pain, joy, love.
Consciousness seems to be much important to him because both humans and computers can have intelligence, but only humans can have conscience.


Chapter 4, Equality
12. How does Harari define “speciation”? How will it happen?
Harari defines speciation as the divergence of humankind into different species or classes, as a result of AI combined with bioengineering.

13. What is, according to him, “the most important political question of our era” (p. 97)
According to him, it’s how ownership of data is going to be regulated

14. How does he think this question might be solved?
He wonders if networked algotithms might form the frame for a global human community that could collectively own and manage all the data, and makes a call to engineers and scientists for a technical solution to enable this.

Discussion: Are there any aspects of Harari’s reasoning in this part of the book that you disagree with? If so, tell your partners why and ask them their opinion.

Activities to do by November 10

This week you should do the activities in chapters 2.6, 2.7 and 3 of the Topic 2 activity book, and finish the activities about Part I of Harari's book.

Also, remember that the deadline for the "How I Overcame a Fear" presentation is November 17th. Please contact me if you have any problems with Flipgrid.

You should carry on doing the Unit 2 assignment from the  Keynote Proficient workbook, too.

Have a good week!

2. Facing your fears: "Why I live in mortal dread of public speaking"

2.6. Out of your comfort zone

Reading:

"Out of Your Comfort Zone"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aKnRwEG9Z-cjkgg0Jh3gBZL6hfSaUMmb/view

The text can be seen more clearly here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18RDapGMkyznab43R3Cp-BWa5htmpKnI7/view

Google ‘out of your comfort zone’ and, along with a host of tips on how to
get there, you will find an overwhelming consensus that this is something we
really all ought to be doing. The general drift is that if you stay in your own
comfortable little box, never seeking new experiences or taking risks, your life will be pretty
dull and unfulfilling. If, on the other hand, you step out of this familiar world, something
magical will happen: not only will you grow
as a person, but whole new vistas of opportunity will open out before you. However, where a
lot of the advice, whether from bloggers or personal coaches, falls short is how being taken
out of your comfort zone can profit not just you, the individual, but others too.

At its simplest level, being out of your comfort zone means doing things that make you feel
uncomfortable or anxious, such as driving at night in the pouring rain or being stuck in an
overcrowded lift. No one, of course, actually advocates seeking out these kinds of situation as
a route to self-improvement. Rather, they advise that we place ourselves intentionally in
challenging situations, mastery of which will give us not just a sense of relief (as in the case
of escaping the crowded lift), but a sense of real achievement. We have managed a difficult
situation, overcome a fear, and are now better placed to deal with it the next time. Canoeing
on white water for the first time and managing to negotiate some treacherous rapids would
offer such a feeling of accomplishment. But it doesn’t have to mean seeking adventure or
becoming an adrenaline junkie. It could equally be something more mundane, like a person
who has no experience of cooking preparing a meal for ten guests. The principle is the same:
the more you attempt to do things that scare you, the more confident you will become and the
more your fear, in general, will begin to fade. You’ll go for that job you thought you had no
hope of getting; you’ll go travelling on your own; you’ll learn a new language.

There is no doubt that these kinds of achievement bring a greater sense of self-empowerment,
but there still seems to be something lacking here. The key perhaps is in the word ‘self’.
Where is the benefit to others? I was struck the other day reading an article about a leadership
training company called ‘Common Purpose’ which offers a more socially-minded approach
to taking people out of their comfort zones. One of their programmes involved participants
visiting a local prison and speaking to inmates about how they had got there and what the
challenges of being ‘inside’ were. A managing director of a local company who took part
said, ‘What I gained from this experience in a business sense might be indirect, but
in a social sense it was priceless – and like any business, [my company] exists in a social
setting.’ This experience wasn’t so much about confronting one’s demons as opening one’s
eyes to the situation of others. That can be uncomfortable, but ultimately, it is something that
benefits more than just the individual concerned.

We all operate within the confines of certain worlds and our own thoughts and actions are
limited by them. The kind of programme offered by Common Purpose removes this
insulation and extends our knowledge not just of our own limitations, but of the restrictions
and difficulties that others face. As Julia Middleton, the founder of Common Purpose, puts it,
‘Most people tend to stay within their limits … they often don’t recognize that a different
approach is needed … As professionals we cannot afford to be isolated from fellow decision-
makers, and as people, we cannot continue to be insulated from our fellow citizens.’

Key
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p9Meg7fbVx6kKd1NCXNf2kDVJHKMRE3T/view