How do you feel about the introduction? Did you like the introduction? Did the introduction you make excited to read the rest of the book?
Did you agree with most or all of the premises or assumptions in the introduction?
How well do you think the Introduction fit with the rest of the book?
Here are some of my highlights from the Introduction:
The human brain doesn't passively take in experience like a recorder; instead; it constantly works over the sensory data it recieves - and the fruit of that mental labor is new versions of the world.
An evolutionary tweak in the algorithms running in human brains has allowed us to absorb the world and create what-if versions of it.
Synthetic biologist, app developer, self-driving car designer, quantum computer designer, multimedia engineer--these are positions that didn't exist when most of us were in school, and they represent the vanguard of what's coming.
Only one thing allows us to face these accelerating changes: cognitive flexibility. We absorb the raw materials of experience and manipulate them to form something new. Because of our capacity to reach beyond the facts we've learned, we open our eyes to the world around us but envision other possible worlds. We learn facts and generate fictions. We master what is, and envisage what-ifs.
Those are just some of my highlights from my notes taken while reading. Of course, they say a lot more than what I have highlighted in the intro. Do you agree with the premises I've quoted here and the others? If you disagree with anything in the introduction, what is it and why?A recent poll found that most Americans want children to have respect for elders over independence, good manners over curiosity, and woudl prefer them to be well behaved rather than creative.