ANNOTATION:
Educating to compensate for the overload problem

Insofar as homo sapiens evolved for success in an environment
radically different from the one in which we find ourselves today,
there is probably no definitive solution to the problem of overload.
 
That said, it is possible to design an educational program that
is vastly superior in terms of its ability to prepare young people
for the future than is our existing educational system.

A few salient features for such a secondary education:

1.  An unambiguous emphasis on the ability to learn new conceptual
material rather than "memorize and forget" content exams.

2.  An approach to learning that emphasizes the need to make 
judgments of value in assessing information (including fundamental
information concerning life choices).  At one level, this
involves preparing students to be savvy locators of information
on the web (even with the innovations in web self-organization
characteristic of Principia Cybernetica, such abilities will be
valuable).  At a higher level, humans need to be trained to 
consider for themselves how to align their fundamental personal
notions of value with external "searches."  Phrased differently,
learning to think for oneself is critical, "future shock" symptoms
are more likely to disorient those who rely on external schema.

3.  Perhaps a "technology" for emotional control in the face of 
lifelong, and perhaps accelerating, uncertainty.  The substance
behind the current Buddhist fad may be a manifestation of the
appetite for such technologies (e.g. Buddhist meditation techniques).
Taoist internal practices, yoga, stoicism, biofeedback, and 
numerous other technologies to be developed will help.

4.  Because we are tribal in our natures, as the forces of future
shock increase, it will become increasingly valuable to include a 
more explicitly and more consciously positive tribal element to
educational environments.

Those interested in these, and more extended notions along the
same lines, may be interested in my work, including my book "The
Habit of Thought."

Michael Strong
socraticpractice [at] mail.com