I'd like to get this clue. Can you tell me what it is?

He's basically saying that in the accelerating times approaching, people
aren't going to be able to learn one skill and expect to be employed with
that skill for the rest of their lives. People are going to have to learn
to be more adaptable.

The ability for lifelong learning was selected by cultural evolution from
the beginning when hominids became juvenilized. When our own culture became
part of the fitness landscape for our genes, memes selected for
youthful genetic characteristics because they accelerated the evolution of
culture. One aspect of youthfulness is lifelong learning.

An adult chimpanzee can't really learn anything new, but an infant can.

As cultural evolution accelerates, it's increasingly selecting for neoteny.
Today culture is selecting for people who are capable of continual
adaptation throughout their lives. Culture is selecting for youth.

But if you have a clue as to why this is wrong, please let me know what it
is.

Jamie

On Mon, Sep 3, 2018 at 7:02 AM Mark Stahlman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> DLers:
>
> This AM, Yuval Harari appeared on CBS News, continuing his book-tour for
> "21 Lessons for the 21st Century."
>
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_Lessons-2D21st-2DCentury-2DYuval-2DHarari-2Debook_dp_B079WM7KLS&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=8OWBeStKrccZ-44MkcF58P4hyPBbXcKD_iP9pMl7pUE&s=3bHjmYG1FKWo8COqvtczG9qGVLH_pDuLLXM0oc-kouE&e=
>
> The clip is well worth reviewing --
>
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.msn.com_en-2Die_news_video_why-2Dthe-2Drise-2Dof-2Dai-2Dmakes-2Dmental-2Dresilience-2Dso-2Dimportant_vp-2DBBMOGlE&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=8OWBeStKrccZ-44MkcF58P4hyPBbXcKD_iP9pMl7pUE&s=ce1qQ37u-Je32fHM9blNh6d38bsZFvfVprJWY2PnHwc&e=
>
> His comments are what has now become standard-fare. Not surprising, since
> he's a "historian" and not a "futurist," he mistakenly said, "No one knows
> the future."  That, is, of course a silly thing to say.  "Knowing" isn't
> the point.  Anticipating, however, is the point and, as it turns out, some
> people are pretty good at doing that.  He's apparently not one of them.
>
> He compounds his errors by, once again repeating what others are saying,
> "Technology isn't deterministic . . . Radio created both Nazi Germany and
> Soviet Russia . . . it's all a matter of what we do with the technology."
> This also silly.  "Determinism" refers to *efficient* (or what we'd rather
> call *kinetic* cause) and it has nothing to do with the action of
> technology on society.  And, of course, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia
> were, in structural terms, actually quite alike.
>
> In this, Harari is repeating what his audience wants to hear: It's all a
> matter of choice.  No, not really.  Technology, as McLuhan told us in 1964,
> "shapes our behaviors and attitudes."  That is because "behaviors and
> attitudes" are *forms* which come about as a result of Culture -- which, in
> turn, is "structured" by the technologies it uses.  Harari has committed
> the typical mistake of "social constructionists," who mistakenly think that
> Culture can be whatever we want it to be.  That has never been the case.
> We, at the Center, on the other hand, are "technological constructivists."
>
> He is, however, clear that what we are facing is a massive psychological
> problem.  He is also correct that today's schools aren't doing anything to
> address this.  He is, however, wrong that the answer is "resilience" and
> had to admit that he must meditate 2 hour every day to keep his own
> balance.  That approach, like much of what he says, is just the same-old
> TELEVISION answer -- or, what McLuhan called the "Inner Trip" into which TV
> "flips" (as described in the 1988 "Laws of Media.")
>
> There is no hint in what I've read by Harari that he understands any of
> this.  The shift from TELEVISION Fantasy to DIGITAL Memory doesn't seem to
> have occured to him.  Perhaps someone will help him with a clue along the
> way . . . <g>
>
> Mark
>
>
>
>
>
>
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