[FRIAM] aversive learning

[thompnickson2 at gmail.com]

Brace yourselves, everybody:  EricC is about to remind you of E.B.Holt's Freudian Wish, the basic lesson of which is that a child cannot learn to avoid a flame he has never felt the heat of.  An argument for Vygotsky’s scaffolding, long before Vygotsky ever thought of it.   ERIC?

Nick 

Nick Thompson

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$
Sent: Wednesday, September 1, 2021 10:29 AM
To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: [FRIAM] aversive learning

 

 

UK judge orders rightwing extremist to read classic literature or face prison  <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/01/judge-orders-rightwing-extremist-to-read-classic-literature-or-face-prison> https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/01/judge-orders-rightwing-extremist-to-read-classic-literature-or-face-prison

 

I know several liberals who agree with the righties that vaccine and mask mandates are bad, though not for the same reasons. Righties yap about fascism and limits to their "freedom". But the liberals talk about how mandates just push the righties further into their foxholes, preventing collegial conversation.

 

So the story above is an interesting situation in similar style. Renee', to this day, hates Shakespeare because she was forced to memorize Romeo and Juliet as a kid. Of course, she doesn't hate Shakespeare, because she hasn't read much Shakespeare. She just *thinks* she hates it because of this "mandate" she suffered under. This court mandated "literature therapy" being imposed on this kid could work, if he can read it sympathetically. But if he can't, if he simply reads it "syntactically", what will he learn?

 

BC Smith, in his book "The Promise of AI", channels Steels & Brooks [ψ] in writing:

 

"What does all this mean in the case of AIs and computer systems generally? Perhaps at least this: that it is hard to see how synthetic systems could be trained in the ways of judgment except by gradually, incrementally, and systematically enmeshed in normative practices that engage with the world and that involve thick engagement with teachers ('elders'), who can steadily develop and inculcate not just 'moral sensibility' but also intellectual appreciation of intentional commitment to the world."

 

If we think of this kid, Ben John, as an AI, what will he learn by mandating he read Dickens? Similarly, what are the mandate protesters learning from our mandates? Stupidity should be painful. And the court's reaction to this kid's stupidity, the pain of reading Pride and Prejudice, should teach that kid something. But which is the more dangerous stupidity? Which stupidity runs the risk of a more catastrophic outcome? Avoiding the vaccine? Or mandating vaccination?

 

 

[ψ]  <https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351001885> https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351001885

 

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