NsF (Hamsteredge vs. Knowledge)
Sep. 3rd, 2018 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vit_rThe third set of methods is created to fight the phenomenon I call "hamsteredge". This is an artificial word that replaces a part in "knowledge" with "hamster". The meaning of this construct is "information squirreling".
Unfortunately the search engines understand the word "squirreledge" as "Squirrel Edge" and deliver too many links with this combination and the word "hamstering" is reserved in urban dictionary.
I prefer a hamster because a squirrel is usually perceived as a wild animal which denotes "information squirreling" with somewhat useful meaning. A hamster in a granary is a more vivid model for the description of this problem.
Note, I have read a lot of books and I could describe the hamsteredge in boring scientific way but my goal is to explain the enemy we will fight and not to get a praise from the people with academic titles. The problem is more complicated than the poetic metaphor below but a short inaccurate description is enough for practical needs.
Please imagine a male hamster in a granary.
It has an enormous supply of grain that exceeds anything he can eat in the whole lifetime. On the other hand a hamster has instincts that force him to collect grain and hide it in private burrows.
A hamster in a wildlife searches for the grain, collects it, transports it to the storage, and places it in the way it could be intact for a long period of time. A hamster in a granary only takes and stores, takes and stores, takes and stores...
No search is needed. Transportation ways are extremely short. There are no predators that can slow down this process. The supply is quasi endless. The whole time is fully occupied with transfer from the external granary into private chambers.
The life of this hamster is spent with meaningless transfer of the grain that never will be eaten.
The same problem is created by modern development of our society. A human lives now in an environment with unlimited supply of high-quality emotionally loaded information.
This creates the problem of hamsteredge.
Our brain was evolved in the environment with shortage of information like our body that was adjusted for shortage of nutrition.
A stone age human lived in a closed group on an relatively small area. The life was filled with continuously repeated low quality information: the same interactions between relatives, the same hunting techniques, the same tools, the same weapons, the same food... Any contact with unknown people, unknown animals, unknown plants, unknown territory and unknown phenomena could bring danger before any possible benefits.
Our brain is designed to be eager for information collecting. There was very low amount of useful new information among daily routine and each bit of it could be essential for survival and prosperity.
This low amount of information was used for thinking. New information was processed many times from different perspectives. It was discussed with peers. It was stored in verbal forms that were converted in tales and myths. It was remembered many times in duration of many years. Images and further the written language were used to store valuable information that may be forgotten or manipulated. This processes converted separate pieces of information into interconnected parts of a system of knowledge shared in a group of people.
Note, "to know" does not mean to have a right scientific explanation or to be able to use this knowledge for something productive. An ancient Greek did know that the nature is controlled by small and big gods. A scientist of Middle Ages did know that there are far away countries with people with animal heads. On the other hand this wrong facts were interconnected into a coherent understanding of the world and could be not only reproduced but also explained.
Modern human does not have luxury time for thinking. The amount of tasty information is too big to stop the consumption process for digesting the facts that are already stored.
The Information Age with internet and mobile devices has made the access to high quality information extremely cheap for any person in a developed country.
We do not need to wait several years for people who travel to distant shores on caravels. We do not need to pay for pricy books of the nineteenth century. We do not need to face wise people who could answer our questions and teach us something new. We do not need to go somewhere to see films and to listen music. We do not need to talk with friends to learn fresh rumors. We even do not need to pay for newspapers to access news.
Information is available at any time in any amount. And it is aggressively pushed to us by television, advertising, internet services and mobile devices.
This does not mean such information is correct, useful or important. But is it tasty for our eager brains that force us to take it and to store it.
Even in case we do not have time to read, listen or watch we store links and files. We would not touch this externally collected information because we would not have time for this but the fact that we have obtained it in some way produces the feeling of satisfaction.
Unfortunately the education system does not teach us how to deal with hamsteredge. On the contrary it favors it over knowledge.
It is very difficult to measure how good some information is interconnected with other information. It is very simple to measure how many facts were stored and could be reproduced without errors.
It is difficult to teach people to think and to evaluate their thoughts processes. It is very easy to say students what facts and rules they must cram for the next test.
It is difficult to prove something. It is easy to reproduce any facts without understanding them.
An assignment that involves the usage of a big system of interconnected facts and rules may take several days or weeks to produce an acceptable result. And such result would be complex enough to take several hours to evaluate and to discuss it. If a task could be solved by applying only one rule or by remembering only one fact and there is only one correct answer, a teacher could easily collect hundreds of such tasks and quickly check answers in forms returned by students.
Teachers prefer easy life. Hamsteredge is supported by today schools, universities and education authorities. This support will only grow in the future.
Media, film producers, writers, artists, other information sources will adapt their production for simpler consumption.
Internet fed by marketing money will push this in greater amounts in more direct and effective ways.
We will accept.
Our instincts that force us to eat more then we need have created the problem of overweight that causes many diseases in today society. Our instincts that force us to absorb more information then we can process create the problem of hamsteredge.
It is a blessing that we cannot see the state of our brains.
Unfortunately the search engines understand the word "squirreledge" as "Squirrel Edge" and deliver too many links with this combination and the word "hamstering" is reserved in urban dictionary.
I prefer a hamster because a squirrel is usually perceived as a wild animal which denotes "information squirreling" with somewhat useful meaning. A hamster in a granary is a more vivid model for the description of this problem.
Note, I have read a lot of books and I could describe the hamsteredge in boring scientific way but my goal is to explain the enemy we will fight and not to get a praise from the people with academic titles. The problem is more complicated than the poetic metaphor below but a short inaccurate description is enough for practical needs.
Please imagine a male hamster in a granary.
It has an enormous supply of grain that exceeds anything he can eat in the whole lifetime. On the other hand a hamster has instincts that force him to collect grain and hide it in private burrows.
A hamster in a wildlife searches for the grain, collects it, transports it to the storage, and places it in the way it could be intact for a long period of time. A hamster in a granary only takes and stores, takes and stores, takes and stores...
No search is needed. Transportation ways are extremely short. There are no predators that can slow down this process. The supply is quasi endless. The whole time is fully occupied with transfer from the external granary into private chambers.
The life of this hamster is spent with meaningless transfer of the grain that never will be eaten.
The same problem is created by modern development of our society. A human lives now in an environment with unlimited supply of high-quality emotionally loaded information.
This creates the problem of hamsteredge.
Our brain was evolved in the environment with shortage of information like our body that was adjusted for shortage of nutrition.
A stone age human lived in a closed group on an relatively small area. The life was filled with continuously repeated low quality information: the same interactions between relatives, the same hunting techniques, the same tools, the same weapons, the same food... Any contact with unknown people, unknown animals, unknown plants, unknown territory and unknown phenomena could bring danger before any possible benefits.
Our brain is designed to be eager for information collecting. There was very low amount of useful new information among daily routine and each bit of it could be essential for survival and prosperity.
This low amount of information was used for thinking. New information was processed many times from different perspectives. It was discussed with peers. It was stored in verbal forms that were converted in tales and myths. It was remembered many times in duration of many years. Images and further the written language were used to store valuable information that may be forgotten or manipulated. This processes converted separate pieces of information into interconnected parts of a system of knowledge shared in a group of people.
Note, "to know" does not mean to have a right scientific explanation or to be able to use this knowledge for something productive. An ancient Greek did know that the nature is controlled by small and big gods. A scientist of Middle Ages did know that there are far away countries with people with animal heads. On the other hand this wrong facts were interconnected into a coherent understanding of the world and could be not only reproduced but also explained.
Modern human does not have luxury time for thinking. The amount of tasty information is too big to stop the consumption process for digesting the facts that are already stored.
The Information Age with internet and mobile devices has made the access to high quality information extremely cheap for any person in a developed country.
We do not need to wait several years for people who travel to distant shores on caravels. We do not need to pay for pricy books of the nineteenth century. We do not need to face wise people who could answer our questions and teach us something new. We do not need to go somewhere to see films and to listen music. We do not need to talk with friends to learn fresh rumors. We even do not need to pay for newspapers to access news.
Information is available at any time in any amount. And it is aggressively pushed to us by television, advertising, internet services and mobile devices.
This does not mean such information is correct, useful or important. But is it tasty for our eager brains that force us to take it and to store it.
Even in case we do not have time to read, listen or watch we store links and files. We would not touch this externally collected information because we would not have time for this but the fact that we have obtained it in some way produces the feeling of satisfaction.
Unfortunately the education system does not teach us how to deal with hamsteredge. On the contrary it favors it over knowledge.
It is very difficult to measure how good some information is interconnected with other information. It is very simple to measure how many facts were stored and could be reproduced without errors.
It is difficult to teach people to think and to evaluate their thoughts processes. It is very easy to say students what facts and rules they must cram for the next test.
It is difficult to prove something. It is easy to reproduce any facts without understanding them.
An assignment that involves the usage of a big system of interconnected facts and rules may take several days or weeks to produce an acceptable result. And such result would be complex enough to take several hours to evaluate and to discuss it. If a task could be solved by applying only one rule or by remembering only one fact and there is only one correct answer, a teacher could easily collect hundreds of such tasks and quickly check answers in forms returned by students.
Teachers prefer easy life. Hamsteredge is supported by today schools, universities and education authorities. This support will only grow in the future.
Media, film producers, writers, artists, other information sources will adapt their production for simpler consumption.
Internet fed by marketing money will push this in greater amounts in more direct and effective ways.
We will accept.
Our instincts that force us to eat more then we need have created the problem of overweight that causes many diseases in today society. Our instincts that force us to absorb more information then we can process create the problem of hamsteredge.
It is a blessing that we cannot see the state of our brains.
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no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 03:33 pm (UTC)high-quality?
highly refined maybe
like
highly refined coconut oil in faked food products
and
emotionally loaded
like
monosodium glutamate
Just look for National Geographic
Date: 2018-09-03 03:36 pm (UTC)film about bushmans, or some other stone age tribe.
Re: Just look for National Geographic
Date: 2018-09-03 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 03:45 pm (UTC)Very easy, actually.
It names introspection. Philosophical discipline.
But it is low demand ability. %)
Today.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 03:56 pm (UTC)I probably live in a different world. It may take years to find someone who has an explanation of things that other people think they know. Like yesterday, when I found a modern math definition of a physical theory, thanks to Urs Schreiber.
Regarding education, the same, I try to do my best to make sure students understand - and they can use any sources they like.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 03:59 pm (UTC)And more so by working environments one must say. ;)
\\This support will only grow in the future.
"Future towns will drown in horse manure". %)
\\Media, film producers, writers, artists, other information sources will adapt their production for simpler consumption.
Current TV series much more complex and grown up
then its predecessors.
So... definitely no "simpler" here.
\\Internet fed by marketing money will push this in greater amounts in more direct and effective ways.
What about Copyright Protection?
no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 04:01 pm (UTC)and there was OLD such definitions, one must ask? %)
Ah... Ok
Date: 2018-09-03 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 04:12 pm (UTC)Do not consider remaining parts of the industry that is on the decline. Current TV series are dull and bland in comparison with the cinema before 80s.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 04:15 pm (UTC)We are old dinosaurs. And we are on the other edge.
The phenomenon describes "people [who] think they know".
no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 04:25 pm (UTC)I have very small knowlage of "cinema before 80s".
So... I'm not an opponent for you here. %)
no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 04:27 pm (UTC)Re: Just look for National Geographic
Date: 2018-09-03 04:30 pm (UTC)They are small and far far away.
But known by anthropologists.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 04:32 pm (UTC)It presumes there was math definitions of a physical theory,
previously.
I'd like to know more about it.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 04:33 pm (UTC)Re: Ah... Ok
Date: 2018-09-03 04:42 pm (UTC)Re: Ah... Ok
Date: 2018-09-03 04:51 pm (UTC)reads as "something good"
what additional "deep meaning" can be in it?
no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-09 03:04 am (UTC)Thanks for posting the link.
I tell my students at the very beginning: I don't care what they memorize. I care what they understand. The class is about understanding. Once you understand, you don't have to remember.