The rocks of the earth tell us much about the earth if we want to listen. Many people don't believe in radio carbon testing for time and ages. But, even if a person doesn't, one still has to somehow account for bones that no person has written about, assumedly not having been seen during recorded history. One must account for the way the scars on the earth's surface appear that tell a story that predates human settlement. The Grand Canyon, the huge lake basin (now dry) in California, the location of mountain ranges all the way from Chile to Alaska that appear mainly on the western portion of the north and south American continents. And then there is the story of the KT boundary.
The Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) boundary is a layer of earth, not too thick, that can be found no matter where one digs. It is significant because certain life forms didn't make it from the layer of rocks found below the boundary to the layer of rocks found above the boundary. Dinosaurs are the most significant life form that failed to make it past the KT boundary. Theories abound on their extinction, but they definitely didn't survive the KT boundary event. Not many argue the origin of the KT boundary since it contains material that comes from space outside the earth's atmosphere. Something huge hit the earth from space and life that existed up to that time didn't make the fossil record after that time.
I would like to sound the death knell for two very significant processes that we now use all the time—reading and writing. A KT boundary event is about to happen to these two processes. It has everything to do with advancing to the next level of civilization. In the next phase, there is no place for either process because they are too slow and take too much processing time. Note the book iBrain by Gary Small and many others like it. Note that it was predicted in 1991 by Jane Healy in Endangered Minds. Public schools will die. They will not make it past the KT boundary of digitized information. They exist to perpetuate old habits. Their fossil remains will be found when holographic imagery becomes commonplace in about 10-15 years. Business will not put up with so many young people coming from schools who can't compete in the global economy. They will take over the schools and form a KT boundary. Communication and presentation of ideas will be the rule of the day that can be communicated and presented fairly instantaneously. What a person can measure in numbers and see with their eyes or spectrometers will be the skills needed.
Already liberal education is not nearly as important as it once was. Success comes to many who know the digital language rather than the printed text. Digital language comes in numbers, pictures, videos, symbols, color codes, waves. Printed text is dying already and the digital revolution is barely underway. Teachers and students alike have very little time to adapt. A significant event has happened that so many educators never recognized. Goodbye—you are the weakest link. Your fossils will litter the countryside on the other side of the digital boundary. You saw the bright light in the sky, heard the rumble, felt the quake under your feet, and died from the radiation, disease, or famine caused by the stellar event.
The good news is that life did make it past the KT boundary. It was life of a different kind. But society is sure more advanced now than when the dinosaurs reigned. So be it.
No comments:
Post a Comment