For the nerds amongst us

> A good read on how high school nerd culture developed.
> http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

Interesting read, thanks. Some other links on alternative educational
experiences and/or alternative employment&leisure:
[Including insightful essays on education by someone who does carpet
cleaning for a living:]
http://www.spiritone.com/~andersen/
(especially:)
http://www.spiritone.com/~andersen/educatn.html
http://www.unconventionalideas.com/
(especially:)
http://www.unconventionalideas.com/purcheduc.html
http://www.whywork.org/
http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
http://www.uvm.edu/~jloewen/
http://www.geocities.com/howardzinnfans/
Even more links about alternatives are on:
http://www.unconventionalideas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t&sid=8c874306cd3f7e3a27944f5dc889157a
and:
http://www.unconventionalideas.com/links.html

Maybe all this helps helps explain this sort of thing:
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/09/04/sprj.colu.house.hearing/
"The lead investigator into the space shuttle Columbia accident told
congressional leaders Thursday that his task force "determined NASA is
not a learning organization. They do not learn from their mistakes."

How can you really expect kids who grow up in Prussian-style (See Gatto)
school/prisons to be able to do really creative and concerned work when
they get out? "October Sky" shows what it is all about as an alternative
-- self-motivated enthusiasm (though still fighting against the crushing
burdens of conventional life). How many good rocket scientists have we
lost along the way to drugs, boredom, suicide, drunk driving, teen
pregnancy, coal mining accidents, etc.? The generation of rocket
scientists we have now it seems grew up in rural areas where they coudl
play with explosives... Today's high-school chemistry classes are dumbed
down so much... Sadly, looks like the USA is loosing its edge in
creative education (if it ever had one). Is NASA just an extension of
high school? (Hope not!) Wasn't high tech creativity supposed to be what
was left in the US after all the other jobs were offshored to India,
China, etc.? NASA is supposed to be IMHO the shining jewel of the US
system, but it needs the resources (including feeder education) to make
it that way (again).

Wonder how many people see space habitats as a way to escape from this
rat race we have constructed for ourselves, where the rats are winning?
For me, I see a direct link between alternative education / lifestyles
and space settlement; that is, if we can't count on the government to
seriously do anything to help space settlement move along (and in fact,
it just makes things more difficult by taxes), then it is up to the
hobbyists, and the way the hobbyists gain more free time is potentially
by looking into this alternative lifestyle / voluntary simplicity thing.
Of course, there is also "right livelihood", so this isn't meant to put
down the few people in NASA who are truly pushing space settlement along
(likely enough, at risk to their jobs). There is probably no better fit
for my interests in some ways than NASA (well, NIST, maybe); yet
everything I hear leaking about about how the organization actually
works keeps me away from it.

Still, I just looked at the recent images of Saturn, and as much as I
think space explorations fulfills and important spiritual need, when I
thought about the billion dollar price tag, I though to myself: what a
waste of money compared to investing that billion in Photovoltaic
(PV/Solar) research -- and then doing Saturn missions a decade later
(Saturn will still be there).

So I guess I've reached the point where I think space settlement will be
a whole lot easier to do if we clean up our act on Earth first
(socially, technically, etc.). SSPS debate with tangoman admitted, of
course, and IMHO that's really the only wobbly leg space settlement
justification (as a conventional economic return activity / benefit to
the planet) has to stand on right now, as microgravity industry hasn't
panned out, etc.. The astronomical science just isn't worth it right
now, with everything else going on on the planet, IMHO. Just think of
ten years of NASA budget applied to PV research and zero-emissions
manufacturing and free educational materials -- our energy and
environmental and educational problems might be solved... Instead we get
pretty pictures and a few more PHDs...
http://www.house.gov/science/goodstein_04-01.htm
And just think if we could harness the energy of high-school nerds for
the common good of saving humanity from a western militaristic
bureaucracy out-of-control.

--Paul Fernhout