Training up my little “future guardians”
With Samuel I’m watching Schoolhouse Rock!, which I didn’t grow up with. He loves it. It sure is clever and catchy. Alas, the history it teaches is on a par with the myth of little George Washington and his cherry tree.
Having recently re-read those parts of the Republic that talk about primary schooling, I can’t but suspect that Socrates would have heartily approved of Schoolhouse Rock!
I do like the “I’m Just a Bill” song.
The science in the show isn’t much better than the history. Don’t burn too much fuel, or it’ll run out and we’ll all be cold, is one lesson from an episode broadcast in 1979. (Oil was expensive that year.) Samuel and I haven’t gotten to the later episodes, but I assume that the message has been quietly revised for the climate science videos of the late 2000s.
The body is a machine, says the episode about human anatomy.
A computer doesn’t have emotions or morality, a later episode says. It’s just a machine.
Combine these two lessons, and the implications are … disturbing.
Having recently re-read those parts of the Republic that talk about primary schooling, I can’t but suspect that Socrates would have heartily approved of Schoolhouse Rock!
I do like the “I’m Just a Bill” song.
The science in the show isn’t much better than the history. Don’t burn too much fuel, or it’ll run out and we’ll all be cold, is one lesson from an episode broadcast in 1979. (Oil was expensive that year.) Samuel and I haven’t gotten to the later episodes, but I assume that the message has been quietly revised for the climate science videos of the late 2000s.
The body is a machine, says the episode about human anatomy.
A computer doesn’t have emotions or morality, a later episode says. It’s just a machine.
Combine these two lessons, and the implications are … disturbing.