I have a 7th grader and in Bulgaria, this means we are preparing for exams and for applying to high schools. High schools have a specialization. You study more math, or a foreign language, or some sciences. Unfortunately, most if not all schools are focused on skills that have quite significantly changed over the last decades of computerization and will further change under the rule of AI. Schools around here teach kids languages they can naturally learn from Youtube and probably don’t need. They teach them math that no longer works that way because of online solvers. Also literature with words that no longer mean anything.
So, I’ve been asking myself that, what do they really need, given where things are heading? My current belief is that kids should learn how things in everyday life work. Like everything possible. From microwaves to airplanes.
How does the water come to the faucet? Where does it come from, where does it go, why does it matter, what’s inside it. How do I fix a small problem in the area? A big problem? Dams, floods, safety.
How does the TV work? What makes these leds produce light? What is light? What’s electricity? What do you do if it breaks? How does the software on it work, how can we change it the way we want? How does the Internet behind it work? All these protocols, switches, routers. What the hell is the WiFi? How does it work? What’s the CPU, the GPU, how to change them, how to fix them, if something breaks.
How does a car work? What’s engine, fuel, fire? What’s a motor? What’s behind the doors, behind the dash, what’s OBD, what’s a multimeter and how to use it.
How does a house work? A bank, a loan, a mortgage. Where does the trash go?
We are fighting with poems at home and hand written texts about cows and rebellions. Well, if you want to teach kids about the 19th century struggles with farming, at least show them where the milk comes from and how cheese is made. City kids have no clue about any of that and don’t even have the vocabulary to talk about it.
There’s lots to learn out there for a curious future adult. Knowing how things work and understanding what the AI changes will be essential in maintaining the civilization alive. I feel like we’ve already outsourced most of the understanding to computers, and are quickly offloading to the probabilistic AI, where understanding doesn’t even mean much. Humans not knowing how things work won’t end well for us just like sooner or later, a Windows won’t be fixable with a restart. Big machines being controlled by AI won’t end well for us either. What if… it decides to do something harmful? How do we control a car that has no steering wheel? Kids will have to know how things work to deal with problems like that and to know they are problems and not let them happen. Worst case, they won’t be hopeless if something in their surroundings break.
Unfortunately, most high schools are language schools and teach math and languages. Meanwhile, translators are not in high demand, and anything math is in crisis.
The video that inspired me to write this.
