A favorite quote...

 One of my favorite quotes comes from the legendary physicist Richard Feynman: 

"Just because you know the name of something, does not mean you know something." 

I see this as one of the primary pathways of people believing conspiracy theories, and falling for mis- and dis-information, for instance. People throw around scientific terms and names of theories and names of ideas, as if they know what any of it means or what the consequences are - these may just be something they saw in a headline on social media or a site of a favorite 'influencer' or politician. Then they repeat it, as fact, and with confidence since they know a fancy-sounding name or idea. These instances are often based on just hearing a name or title or single idea. But as happens SO MUCH, with people consuming news and information in an age of short Tik Tok videos, Reels, or 200-character tweets or messages, about SERIOUSLY COMPLEX AND COMPLICATED ISSUES that require true expertise to begin to understand the issues, just knowing the name of something does not mean one knows, AT ALL, anything substantial or accurate about that something! 

Falling into the trap of fooling oneself they know what they are talking about because they can repeat a name or quote by an "influencer", without seriously understanding ANYTHING about the topic or issue, helps give birth to conspiracy theories, misunderstandings, and the rapid spread of mis- and dis-information. And this is, as we are seeing here and around the world, causing some serious splits in whole societies. It is also leading to a deterioration in the value of expertise, and mistrust of science itself, that has created the very technologies and ways of life of world civilizations. From climate change, to medicine and vaccinations, to evolution, new energy sources, to food science and nutrition, to advanced technologies like intelligent robotics, AI, and quantum computing, and so on, people are throwing names and ideas around they've heard from non-experts and using those as 'knowledge and facts', despite not know the details about those names and ideas. It's a dangerous practice, and has real consequences on our future.

Some wonderful projects (and ideas) for Computational Research at Wolfram

 Check out this site, for the Wolfram HS Research Program. The possibilities for research in the computational realm are endless! 

If you enjoy coding, or want to learn coding, and want to use it to explore research questions, wow, there are some cool thing you can do! Lots of options and ideas here, on our CABS page. 

Some thoughts about: EELS as class pets, and how Quantum Mechanics changed how I think about students (and humans generally)

 Go here to find deeper dives into EELS as class pets, where EELS stands for Everyday Essential Life Skills and a renaming and rebranding of SEL

Go here to find deeper dives into how Quantum Mechanics changed my view and mindset of who my students are (and humans generally), which I believe needs to happen with all educators across the country, regardless of grade levels taught. See my TED talk about some of this. 

Feel free to share on your social media platforms. Teachers, feel free to use any/all of this! 

#SEL #mindset #EduReforms #EducationMindset #education #teaching

Population dynamics at work on a global scale

 This is an interesting report from NPR about the birth rates in the US and all over the world. Women and families are having fewer babies than they were decades ago, with more and more families making the conscious decision to not have babies. This is beginning to create significant changes in global population projections, but more immediately this is affecting economies and national planning around the world. Most significantly, here in the US, as well as China, many European countries, and elsewhere, there are not enough young workers to help the rapidly increasing number of elderly people. The big question is, is this sustainable? More and more countries and states are now below the replacement rate for sustaining a stable and growing economy, which will cause disruptions in nations. Another question is how will this affect future climate models and change the predicted global demographics, which then affect the future course of the human race?

These are important questions, and mix in with the questions being faced with the advent of AI, advanced robotics, and climate change. This is an inflection point in human history, with an unknown pathway ahead of us.