RE: [xmca] Don C about the "epic" googlization film - a bit of mcahistory

Mike,

The discussion is really pointing out that an expert and a novice are both context dependant. Depends on the context, who is involved as to whom is the expert/novice, if these labels are even useful.

I watched the movie 'Snakes on a plane' - Samuel L Jackson the other day. At one point they need to find someone who can fly the plane - one of the passengers states that he has a certain number of hours.... Only after a few minutes in the pilots seat does he state that his experience is 2000 hours on a playstation!!!!!

Thank goodness for properly qualified, experienced pilots out there :)

Louise

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Cole [mailto:lchcmike@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, 29 June 2007 12:31 AM
To: Wolff-Michael Roth
Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] Don C about the "epic" googlization film - a bit of mcahistory

Steve-- I believe the Googlezon film is a useful tool for thinking about the issue of changes in agency and ontology associated with massive parallel computing systems that are the media for our knowledge of thought and the world. It also overlaps the theme of data mining for inter-cultural business advertising and decision making Naeem introduced. Sure, there is a lot of hype, which includes the hype over how flat the world is, but Friedman is pointing at a real phenomenon, or part of one.

Michael. I am all for organizing activity that leads to expansive learning.
But, again, going to the opposite
extreme and saying that deep knowledge and skill in a domain is simply a mode of hierarchy/power creation is, in my view, not helpful. Two really friendly and cooperative peers who have no experience gardening (to pick a domain where I readily concede my dufferhood, yet try to contribute as best I can, while not hesitating to stop in at my garden store to figure out why and how I killed two fig trees in two years) might starve because they cannot expand quickly enough. By the same token. western experts who went into Liberia to "teach the farmers" how to grow rice more efficiently were, for the reasons that bother Michael and Louise. responsible for widespread misery, starvation, displacement of people from the land, etc. I am not valorizing expertise unconditionally. I do value highly taking advantage of the enormous heterogeneity of knowledge in a very heterogeneous and uncertain world. I still do not want my grand daughter piloting the next plane I ride in, even if her best friend is co pilot.
mike

Mi

On 6/28/07, Wolff-Michael Roth <mroth@uvic.ca> wrote:
>
> Hi Mike,
> perhaps we have to rethink the "more knowledgeable partner" and think
> zpd as Yrjö suggested as a change in the activity system that leads to
> expansive learning, and this may happen also in the case were equally
> knowledgeable partners get together, or if a new tool is introduced,
> different forms of division of labor are evolved, etc.
>
> Michael
>
>
>
> On 27-Jun-07, at 7:41 PM, Mike Cole wrote:
>
> No one picked up on this and I should probably just drop it but the
>
> continued discussion on ZOPED prompts me to ask, could a computer
>
> algorithm be a "more knowledgeable" partner? Adaptive testing is
> another
>
> example of an artificial intelligence that tries to move people into a
>
> zone of maximum response. If the vision in EPIC 2015 were actualized,
>
> might not the algorithm be a sensei, showing us the way forward? I
>
> understand that the notion of _forward_ is problematic, but is that
> not
>
> also true of a human sensei......or any teacher? And why should the
> goal
>
> in a zoped be the ability to act independently? Most of the things in
> my
>
> life that have expanded my capabilities are things I have come to rely
>
> on and are now a part of me. I can't imagine how I ever wrote anything
>
> of value when I wrote in long hand, had a poor (now nearly blind
> thanks
>
> to me) secretary type it up, correct, edit, repeat, and so forth. Here
> I
>
> link with Donna's contribution where she mentions natural born cyborgs.
>
> Can anyone doubt that within my lifetime (and I'm OLD) that things
> like
>
> MP3's and cell phones will be available as surgical implants?
>
>
>
> Mind you, this all scares the beejeezes out of me..........djc
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>
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Received on Thu Jun 28 16:52 PDT 2007