Are we taking children to virtual reality on a steam engine?
We are preparing children for a world that has irretrievably vanished. We are taking children to virtual reality on a steam engine and telling them it's good for them. This book argues the opposite and tries to show which means of transport lead society into the future instead of the past.
There's a fun party game. Chairs are arranged in a circle, and people stand around them. There is exactly one fewer chair than people. On command, the people must sit down – whoever doesn't make it is out of the game. They have nowhere to sit. To a large extent, this is an allegory for life. Human society plays this game in the real world too. The successful find their places, while the unsuccessful linger in the shadows of the periphery. The aim of upbringing and education in this world should be to find as many places as possible for everyone, because too many people on the periphery turn the game into a difficult situation or even a horror.
But what if humanity has reached a situation where the original rules of the game no longer apply because the chairs are not at hand, but are hidden somewhere in a confusing space beyond immediate reach, and are even constantly moving? To find them, you need skills that you must acquire. But instead, you are acquiring skills that lead you in a completely different direction. This is the situation we find ourselves in now, and we are doing little to change it.
