It's the hottest day of the year so far and here I am- again, not doing what I want to do (be at the beach) but doing what I think I should do (study).
And isn't that what life is all about?
Doing what we think we should do...
I want to talk about the word ignorance today, because I was just called "ignorant" by somebody.
You see, he and I were having a debate about math and science- my stance being that it is completely unnecessary to improving our lives because of human ignorance; and his being that math and science has drastically improved our lives.
Then since we couldn't agree, he called me ignorant.
Nowadays, we use the word "ignorant" almost as a replacement for "stupidity". But is it really a good replacement?
"Ignorance" relates to the verb "ignore".
From the free online dictionary,
"IGNORE: Verb [-noring, -nored] to refuse to notice; disregard deliberately [Latin ignorare not to know] "
Now let me put forth my point in as plain sentences as I can.
We all know by now that we are living in the age of information.
According to research done by Scott McLeod and Jeff Brenman, we see the interesting statistic that a weeks worth of the New York Times is estimated to hold more information than a regular person living in the 18th century is likely to come across in his lifetime.
Isn't this an amazing accomplishment for mankind?
In the past 100 years, we've shrunk the world through globalisation, raised overall life expectancy, kept many children out of hunger (we're overfeeding now) and empowered the middle class.
Science has enabled us to examine environmental phenomena and our own bodies in ways never before imagined. With all this new information, it is inevitable that we become more and more ignorant.
In fact, we already see it happening. And this is not something that is happening to someone else walking on the street or that we read about in newspapers. It's happening to you and me.
Let me give you an example.
Thanks to the scientific method, we've identified a huge hole that we dug ourselves and are going to fall into sooner or later.
The wealth in evidence and statistics that expose the destructive nature of plastics is overwhelming.
The logical solution is starkly obvious. Just stop all use of plastics before we end up killing or hurting ourselves and our children both internally and externally.
And here is where I make my point about logic, math and science being irrelevant to our daily decision making.
Just go ahead and read this article. Are you going to give up using plastic products?
My guess is no.
Here. I have some excuses ready for you.
1) It's not my problem.
2) We'll find out some solution in the future.
3) It's not possible.
4) Too inconvenient
5) Too expensive to do so
6) I don't care
If you made one of those excuses or others, do you know what you just did? You have deliberately disregarded the information and solution presented to you.
And the fact that we repeatedly ignore our carefully formulated facts and predictions about the world shows how irrelevant math, science and logic is to our daily decision making.
This whole influx of so-called useful information via technology and the Internet is just going to make us better at coming to a decision. But it will not necessarily make us better decision makers.
And isn't that what life is all about?
Doing what we think we should do...
I want to talk about the word ignorance today, because I was just called "ignorant" by somebody.
You see, he and I were having a debate about math and science- my stance being that it is completely unnecessary to improving our lives because of human ignorance; and his being that math and science has drastically improved our lives.
Then since we couldn't agree, he called me ignorant.
Nowadays, we use the word "ignorant" almost as a replacement for "stupidity". But is it really a good replacement?
"Ignorance" relates to the verb "ignore".
From the free online dictionary,
"IGNORE: Verb [-noring, -nored] to refuse to notice; disregard deliberately [Latin ignorare not to know] "
Now let me put forth my point in as plain sentences as I can.
We all know by now that we are living in the age of information.
According to research done by Scott McLeod and Jeff Brenman, we see the interesting statistic that a weeks worth of the New York Times is estimated to hold more information than a regular person living in the 18th century is likely to come across in his lifetime.
Isn't this an amazing accomplishment for mankind?
In the past 100 years, we've shrunk the world through globalisation, raised overall life expectancy, kept many children out of hunger (we're overfeeding now) and empowered the middle class.
Science has enabled us to examine environmental phenomena and our own bodies in ways never before imagined. With all this new information, it is inevitable that we become more and more ignorant.
In fact, we already see it happening. And this is not something that is happening to someone else walking on the street or that we read about in newspapers. It's happening to you and me.
Let me give you an example.
Thanks to the scientific method, we've identified a huge hole that we dug ourselves and are going to fall into sooner or later.
The wealth in evidence and statistics that expose the destructive nature of plastics is overwhelming.
The logical solution is starkly obvious. Just stop all use of plastics before we end up killing or hurting ourselves and our children both internally and externally.
And here is where I make my point about logic, math and science being irrelevant to our daily decision making.
Just go ahead and read this article. Are you going to give up using plastic products?
My guess is no.
Here. I have some excuses ready for you.
1) It's not my problem.
2) We'll find out some solution in the future.
3) It's not possible.
4) Too inconvenient
5) Too expensive to do so
6) I don't care
If you made one of those excuses or others, do you know what you just did? You have deliberately disregarded the information and solution presented to you.
And the fact that we repeatedly ignore our carefully formulated facts and predictions about the world shows how irrelevant math, science and logic is to our daily decision making.
This whole influx of so-called useful information via technology and the Internet is just going to make us better at coming to a decision. But it will not necessarily make us better decision makers.
I mean, seriously, who would've voted Bush for his second term then?
P.S.
As for plastics, I am on my way to ridding my life of them. I will talk more about that next time.
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