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Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

1401 points alankay | 3 comments | 20 Jun 16 18:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.632s | source

This request originated via recent discussions on HN, and the forming of HARC! at YC Research. I'll be around for most of the day today (though the early evening).
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iyn ◴[20 Jun 16 18:19 UTC] No.11939981[source]▶
Thanks for doing this AMA.

Q: How do you think we can improve todays world (not just with technology)? What do you think is our species way forward? How as a civilization can we 'get to higher level'? Specifically, I'm interested in your views on ending poverty, suffering, not destroying the Earth, improving our political and social systems, improving education etc. I understand that these are very broad topics without definitive answers but I'd love to hear some of your thought about these.

Thank you and I just want to mention that I appreciate your work.

replies(1): >>11941983 #
1. alankay1 ◴[20 Jun 16 22:09 UTC] No.11941983[source]▶
"What Fools these Mortals be!" Puck meant that we are easy to fool. In fact we like to be fooled -- we pay lots of money to be fooled!

One way to look at this is that the most important learning anyone can do is to understand "Human beings as if from Mars" -- meaning to get beyond our fooling ourselves and to start trying to deal with what is dangerous and counterproductive in our genetic (and hence cultural) makeups. This is quite different than what most schools think they are supposed to be about -- but the great Jerome Bruner in the 60s came up with a terrific curriculum for 5th graders that was an excellent start for "real anthroplogy" in K-5.

replies(1): >>11942094 #
2. dang ◴[20 Jun 16 22:27 UTC] No.11942094[source]▶
> the great Jerome Bruner in the 60s came up with a terrific curriculum for 5th graders that was an excellent start for "real anthroplogy"

Was that the MACOS program?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man:_A_Course_of_Study

I was casting around recently looking for something to post to HN about it, but there's surprisingly little on the web. (I haven't yet watched the National Film Board documentary on it, which was the only substantive source I could find.)

replies(1): >>11942430 #
3. alankay1 ◴[20 Jun 16 23:28 UTC] No.11942430[source]▶
Yes, it was MACOS. A very good book about this is "Politics in the Classroom".

There is actually quite a lot of stuff on MACOS on the web, most of the materials, etc.

Bruner wrote a number of outstanding essays as part of the MACOS design project ...