From Education to Accelerated Learning
The Mission News: October 6, 2017
“You lean over my meaning’s edge and feel
A dizziness of the things I have not said.”
-Trumbull Stickney, The Soul of Time
How much can we learn? And how quickly can we learn it? These are still very open questions, and we can’t begin to explore them if we stay mired in distractions.
News that matters
➜ Stories will always matter. New research by USC shows that when people read stories (no matter what culture or background they are from), the result is greater empathy. If only The Mission had a podcast that told the best stories… ;) Don’t worry, it’s coming soon!
➜ It turns out having big chunks of aluminum in your brain is not good for you. Be sure to check to make sure any products that you’re putting on your skin do not contain them!
What we’re reading
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
“What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate. In the Huxleyan prophecy, Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours. There is no need for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth. When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; a culture-death is a clear possibility.”
What we’re listening to
What we’re watching
ICYMI: Here are the highlights from Elon Musk’s speech last Friday:
And here’s the full speech:
For those that want to explore one piece of source material that has inspired both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, check out Making Starships and Stargates.
About the book:
“To create the exotic materials and technologies needed to make stargates and warp drives is the holy grail of advanced propulsion. A less ambitious, but nonetheless revolutionary, goal is finding a way to accelerate a spaceship without having to lug along a gargantuan reservoir of fuel that you blow out a tailpipe. Tethers and solar sails are conventional realizations of the basic idea.
There may now be a way to achieve these lofty objectives.”
Check Out Today’s Top Stories
Originally published on our M-F Newsletter.
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