[Edu-sig] Entering Squeakland

[kirby urner]

> We turn on the television and pictures appear and we are lost in the
> pictures - the magic that is beyond our understanding or interest on
> what is making them appear is suitably left as magic.  *That's* the
> fallacy that's going to bring us down, IMO.
>

Yes, and I think Squeakland helps fight that "take it all for granted"
mentality.  Because you're in a cartoon-like space, and it it's *up to
you* to make stuff happen (your the TV *producer* not just the
potato).

> And the funny thing is I don't really disagree with him.  Except that I
> would express it a little differently - believing that the most profound
> thing that computers will do for us is teach us what computers cannot do
> for us. And I do think that is a profound lesson.

Yes.  Wittgenstein took the same approach to logic:  yes it's true,
but so is 0 = 0.

> Just a little impatient with the process, is all.
>
> Art

We get, and will get, both these types of children:

Type:

Excellent in a virtual jungle game, with avatar Tarzan or companion
Jane, or maybe as some Tombraider chick.  Admired for skills, a
celebrity in the urban bazaar, where the technology is taken for
granted, virtual reality accepted ("the reality of court life").

Type:

A real Tarzan or Jane, a virtuoso of real jungles -- has no use for
computers in big sky country, outside the DVD teepee.  Maybe sleeps in
a hammock, suffers no star-stealing "light pollution" (the nearest big
city is far away).

Kirby