Learning in a digital ‘cyberpunk’ world #LRN2024











About pauldrasmussen

4 Responses to Learning in a digital ‘cyberpunk’ world #LRN2024

  1. Barb Tyndall says:

    Very interesting: would we need external data storage for backup, and if so, could a competent hacker, or anyone with a hacking ‘chip’ installed be able to hack into our brains with fMRI technology?

  2. Ryan Tracey says:

    The Singularity is near!

    To me, the interface learning scenario that you describe is an advanced example of distributed knowledge. For centuries we’ve reduced the burdens on our brains by transferring knowledge to tablets and books, and more recently to hard drives and web servers, not to mention the knowledge that we know is in other people’s heads. The connectivist philosophy maintains that it is more important to learn this network of knowledge sources (“know where”) than the knowledge itself (“know what”). In this age of shrinking knowledge half-life, there’s something to this.

    The USB chip thingy is a fascinating concept. I wonder though how applicable it would be to a skill such as driving a car. We know that we can read books and watch videos until the cows come home and become experts on how to drive a car, but it’s not until we get behind the wheel and give it a go that we *can* drive a car. Is the USB not simply providing us with the foundational knowledge? I can not see how we could argue how one has acquired the skill without putting the knowledge into practice and refining it in that most complex of ways that could never be transferred artificially.

    On the subject of cars, remember the days when we used to learn how to get from A to B? If we took away everyone’s GPS, would they be lost?

  3. Eric Livingston says:

    Your post Paul taps into some fundamental questions:
    What is learning?
    What is knowledge?
    What are skills?
    The world in which you painted seemed to hint at information download rather then acquiring any inherent understanding on what knowledge is required to perform a given task or work in a particular field. I dare say in some vocations there may be an element of information download being enough in some situations to perform a task adequately. However, when we look at individual variables that can occur in any given situation (working with people for example), can every variable be accounted for?

    I couldn’t help but think as I was reading about how you eloquently paired problems with computer memory and how that parallels our own brains capacity to hold on to information that it does come down to the application, ‘skill acquisition’ over information sharing which, learning institutions grapple with.

    How do we effectively impart information with meaningful opportunities to apply this information so that a student/participant/client has obtained knowledge, rather than information, and gains the confidence in imparting this foundational learning in various situations?

    Does our accountability lie in the giving of information for cerebral assimilation at a time deemed required, or does our accountability lie in providing the meaningful acquisition of information to form a sound knowledge base upon which a person can learn when they feel is situationally appropriate to apply learned skills?

    • pauldrasmussen says:


      I think that one of the watershed’s that we are facing or will soon face is the question of what is learning. If I can through and interface of some kind not only download the knowledge of how to do a task, but additionally import the physicality of of the task, so that is actually acquire the skills themselves, then that changes the face of learning significantly, particularly if I can simply swap skill sets at any given time. I believe that there are certainly things that we need to learn, sills and knowledge that form a basis of our ability to interact and to move through the world, but I am becoming increasingly thoughtful about the idea that there are a whole range of skills and knowledges that we don’t need to learn, but which we simply need to acquire and disacquire as needed.

Let me Know what you think


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