Thursday, April 23, 2009

How and Why I Wrote It

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It has been a curious fact of my life that i've learned from all of these fields as i grew up and have seen how they interconnect. And the interconnections are EXCITING. I believe that for the first time in history we can intelligently discuss and experiment with the topics of what is mind, can life originate from geochemistry?

Alas, while each of these topics are taught in SOME subdiscipline at the university level, very few people get to see them ALL, and how they shed light on one another. I believe that hints of this ought to be got at the high school level, and certainly ANYONE who comes out with a university education in the 21st century should have gone through a 2 semester survey course which shows this interconnected body of knowlege and how it impinges on these age old questions of life, creativity, mind, and soul.

even at the elementary school level, facts and exercises from many of these topics which are never touched upon, can be presented, preparing students for eventual synthesis.

This complexity lab manual is my suggestion of a curriculum for this study. The main body consists of 100 labs from these disparate fields. Some of these labs are simple pencil and paper puzzles that a 10 year old child can play with. Other's are sophisticated university level experiments, or projects. I believe that a combination of a hands on exposure to some, and reading about others, of these labs are necessary to prepare students to be able to enter the arena of discussion about: How does life evolve? Where did life come from, is life a consequence of chemistry or does it require a nonphysical 'vital spark', indeed, can WE recreate life in the laboratory? What is mind? Can it be a consequence of interactions between simple parts? Can we create minds also?

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About Me

almost native to new york state. teacher and storyteller. email: sow_thistle@yahoo.com