Shift to the Future

I’ve started reading another book.  Yah, I know, what a surprise :-)  In How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed, Ray Kurzweil claims “ this is why we invent tools – to compensate for our shortcomings ” (Kindle 458).  That is an interesting statement given the checkered past the advancement of society has.  Although our technology is agnostic, it always seems to have a good and an evil use or purpose.  In Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation et al, the authors quote “’ In the years ahead,’ Rifkin wrote, more sophisticated software technologies are going to bring civilization ever closer to a near-workerless world’ ” (Kindle 118) and claim that the “ the role of humans as the most important factor of production is bound to diminish in the same way that the role of horses in agricultural production was first diminished and then eliminated by the introduction of tractors ” (Kindle 125).  In light of...

Do you remember the days of film projectors in schools when the teacher would roll this complicated device in, fumble around with the reels of movie tape trying to load it up.  There was only one such device in the school and it was shared amongst all the teachers, well at least the ones that could figure out how to use it.  Or, how about calculator labs?  Calculators used to be “sophisticated” computers that cost hundreds if not a thousand dollars.  Kids couldn’t afford to buy and bring these to school.  Even if they could, they might lose or damage their calculator, or someone might steal it.  So, schools provided it.  Today, for $20 kids can buy a really good one or install a full scientific app on their smart phone.  For years now, schools have provided computer labs as places to learn about computing, digital information use, etc.  Some schools also moved to providing laptops to some, or all their students.  But now this is changing...