Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest. - Isaac Asimov

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. - Isaac Asimov

I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students. - Carl Sagan

What if we just listened? Maybe our burning questions would be answered without asking.

People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. -Isaac Asimov

I accepted a course this fall. It has been wonderful, but I sure am looking forward to having my time back.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. -Carl Sagan

Names of ideas are fine, but conceptual understanding is far more important.

We are in trouble if we think AI really is I.

I was very interested in science as a teenager. I’m sure glad I got to hang out with skilled teachers who knew science that my parents didn’t.

I’ve seen humans parallel park. Let’s allow computers to do this task.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous. -Carl Sagan

My first day as a student teacher (in 1988), the teacher gave me some research papers from high school students to read. The first one, I identified as copied fro encyclopedia. The students admitted it. Don’t stress over ChatGPT writing essays.

“This is great, everyone needs to use it.”

“It must be banned.”

Reality is somewhere in the middle.

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. -Carl Sagan

Students own their work… even if it is handed in as part of an assignment. Please don’t violate their copyright.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. -Carl Sagan

Some observations on learning: A blog post now with audio
https://hackscience.education/2019/11/19/some-observations-of-learning/

“… because autocrats feel threatened by the mere existence of democracies.” -George S. Takach

A blog post (now with audio) on Whitehead's idea of inert knowledge .
https://hackscience.education/2019/11/25/inert-knowledge/