Harvard for All

I watched a lecture in basic chemistry that was part of the regular class schedule at Berkley on Netflix last night. It was great. I had access to all their web self help sites as well. Two things struck me. The lecturer was world class, and the fact that he said that grades were not done on a curve - just straight percentages. I got to thinking - anyone could get a great education on line, and since the students weren't competing with each other, why couldn't anyone just sign up and take the course over the net - for credit? Zero admission criteria. Anyone who wants and pays can take the exact same chemistry 101 or any other course at Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, you name it,  for credit towards a degree as any on campus student would take.
Lets do away with entrance criteria, let anyone who wants to sign up and take courses over the net, take the tests, and get credit for the grade they get. Literally hundreds of thousands could sign up. This would open up world class education to all, would stop punishing bright intelligent people for lack of focus in their youth, and would greatly enhance convenience and accessibility. The monies earned would allow free tuition for on campus students. These students would be selected from a highly competitive pool much as is done now. The on campus experience would probably remain the more prestigious, designed for the most promising, allowing for on campus experience, networking and counseling. But the classes would be identical, and the online degree real and well earned. Accessibility of the best and brightest educators to the world. Stunning

An Act of God

There are Republican politicos out there that are still calling the oil spill an act of God. If it is, then God is trying to tell them something, and its not that BP has no liability.

Science and Religion

Science and religion are in pursuit of the some of the same things.
Both try to explain and thus heighten our experience of the incredible beauty that is this universe.
Both try to provide answers outside of ourselves.
Here's the major difference between most religion and science.
Religion requires faith.
Faith is a mind killer. Faith is a comfortable blanket to insulate from the cold reality of the unknown. Faith is even at times - laziness.
Faith calls for an end to the pursuit of knowledge, to further understanding.
It is a matter of faith - simply accept.
Science pursues truth. Truth reveals beauty. Truth is much larger than ourselves.
Truth is the reward of our courage to face the unknown.
Truth is the reward of our courage to face not knowing.
The pursuit of truth is the only thing that will expand understanding, compassion, humility.
Truth, the pursuit of truth, is the only way we can grow.
As we gain more understanding, as we discover more truth,  the beauty that is this universe is revealed
and the more beautiful we become.
I choose truth over faith every time.

Confessions of an Agnostic

Artificial intelligence will evolve past human capability. No one seriously argues this.
There probably is no limit to intellectual growth.
Intelligence a million times, a billion times, a billion, billion times ours.
Not only is this possible, it’s inevitable.
Intelligence so great it exceeds our ability to appreciate it in its entirety.
To us such intelligence would be indistinguishable from God.
Given the age and size of our universe, or the very real possibility that this may be a multi-universe reality, such intelligence is likely to have already evolved.
Perhaps our universe is their handiwork.
Perhaps there is a creator.
Perhaps there is an intelligence that is omnipotent and omnipresent.
Perhaps there is a God.
One thing is for sure
This God isn’t Allah. It’s not Jesus. It doesn’t have sons that look like us. It’s not Buddha. It’s not a human creation.
But if an intelligence created everything there is its presence would be evident in everything.
On some crude level we would be aware of it in our shadowy understanding, in the fog of our intuitive sense of the beauty, relationships, complexity imbued in all that there is.
Perhaps that is the origin of our rather crude interpretations of religion, of our Gods.

Horoscope of the Day - The Onion Style

AIRES
The throbbing inside your skull will finally come to a stop this week, signaling the end of the Trematode's gestation period.

Obama

Just read that Obama has pursued 'leaks' from his administration with more vigor and vengeance than even George Bush and Cheney did . Obama is putting primarily well meaning whistle blowers trying to improve things in jail - and I don't mean house arrest.
Overall, after considering the entire Obama Presidency to date,  I feel betrayed. Anyone else?

One World

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind" .....Albert Einstein.  

Sorry, I cant help it. I don't hero worship. It's just, wow, what insight for 1949.