I am always in a bit of two minds when it comes to evidence and proof for what I talk about, because for the most part, it is observational. Most of my life has been observing people's behaviors, looking at what they do, what they use, their interactions with others, their reactions to others and events, and then I try to work out what it all means. As a result,
I have a theory for everything.
Regardless of the evidence available, sometimes I am right, sometimes wrong, and probably most of the time, partially right and wrong. Because, this is what observation of the world is, because unless there is a discovered natural law, nothing is really ever known for sure, it is all just a work in progress on the way to find the truth - or the "truth" as humans can discover and understand it.
As I see it, everything in the universe is observable, even if we haven't yet observed it. This means that there are conditions that we don't know about, affecting outcomes that we might not know about either, setting of reactions that we don't know about it. Lack of evidence doesn't mean that there is no evidence to find, but from our human perspective, we want to know, we want to discover, we want to claim the unknown, as knowledge.
But, knowledge is a funny thing these days, because pretty much all we know as a species is readily available at our fingertips, which gives us confidence in the information, because it seems so solid. However, building knowledge requires growing what is known, and that comes through observation and conjecture, which leads to hypothesis and investigation that might not yield results for many years. And, often, it isn't the person who has the theory who ends up finding the answer, but like an article I wrote a long time ago about how designers can drive engineers to find solutions to create the "impossible" designs, investigation needs direction.
If we think about education in general, despite what some people believe and some education systems teach, it isn't about knowledge sharing. Instead, it is about orienting students toward a direction of enquiry. It isn't about what we already know and the solutions we have, but providing a foundation to discover what we yet don't know, and develop improvements and solutions to help us advance as a species.
Most of us won't help much.
At least, most of us aren't going to find the solutions to the problems we face as a species. Yet, we are all part of the conversation and add to the ecosystem that facilitates or holds back development. We are no longer tiny communities, because over the last few hundred years we have truly become global and as a consequence, we face global problems. These might have existed earlier, but with only localized views of the world, there was little we could do to find solutions, because we didn't even know there were problems. And, many of the global problems we face, have been created or at least exacerbated by our localized views and therefore behaviors, of our collective past.
We have however become a data-driven world with all the information available to us, which is a massive advantage and resource. But there is a downside to this also, as people have become reliant on the known, rather than explorative of the unknown. This is happening at a general level and even though most of us wouldn't find solutions anyway, the pool of those who can shrinks.
It is a cultural change, where it is similar to a sport where some cultures will facilitate the number of people available and likely to do well. For example, Finland is known for ice hockey, but as more and more foreigners come into the country, football is starting to build in popularity, and skill. An education system that shares knowledge might do well on the standardized tests, but an education system that also encourages innovation, which requires nurturing curiosity, will do well in finding the solutions.
For me, I don't have the intelligence to solve many problems in life, but this doesn't stop me from observing my world and positing possible reasons why things might be happening. Observation and hypothesizing doesn't require data to inspire someone to explore, question and look for the data to back up, or prove wrong.
But, we also live in world where that information is available at the fingertips, so that online when people make an observational statement, others will question it asking for proof, or finding some bit of information that supports their argument, even if there are other bits that don't. It is easy to cherrypick information, which is why information itself is no longer that valuable.
That sounds like a silly statement, because people will of course say that data and information is the most valuable thing in the world today, but that might not actually be true. The reason is that information itself is not valuable until it is applied to create something of value. We can have all the information in the world, but if it isn't used to make our world a better place, is it really being used well?
I don't think so.
And I see it in many conditions I observe, including the way people behave. And it is here that I will end this article, talking about humans. Because, despite what people seem to think when it comes to how much we have changed over time, I don't think we have changed that much at the fundamental levels. We know a lot about how social interaction has helped us develop, we know how important it is to innovation, we know that we all have a hierarchy of needs as humans that make us feel like we are having a good life. But, we are changing the way we behave and interact as if everything we already know, has been superseded by technology. We think that sitting behind a screen and reading tweets is enough to fill the needs of community. Or being part of an online social movement is enough to fulfill our needs of a family.
I believe we are failing.
And I think there are hints that inform this from the past, where when we were isolated, when we were localized, we didn't have an understanding of all the damage we were doing at the global level to the environment. However now, we are isolating through technology without realizing the damage we are doing to our society. There are plenty of indicators like rising depression, obesity and mental illness, but because there is no conclusive data on not only the causes, but also the solutions, it gets ignored, swept under the rug - left for another day, year, or generation.
But the generations that come, are they curious enough to search for the real issues? Are they skilled enough to develop the solutions? Or are they too busy looking for ways to entertain themselves?
Humans are humans.
Do other species avoid dealing reality?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]