INTRODUCTION TO UNIVERSITY EDUC 1000 Final Test Fall 2018 Hendricus Van Wilgenburg PhD Directions: Critically read “The Better Angels of Our Nature vs. the Internet,” by David J. Helfand, Skeptical Inquirer Magazine, Volume 40.5, September/October 2016 (copy posted on Brightspace). Once you have read the article carefully, answer the following five questions. Your responses should be clear and comprehensive. Support your statements with short references to the article (each response should logically follow from the previous response). Each of the following questions is worth 2 points; the final test is worth 10% of your final mark in this course. Your mark will be based on accuracy, clarity, and comprehensiveness. Post your completed test in the appropriate Dropbox (Final Test) on Brightspace. Your test must be submitted on or before 5:00 pm Friday, November 30, 2018 (tomorrow). You are required to complete the test alone. Any copying, sharing of answers or other form of cheating will result in an a “0”. Answer the following 5 questions: 1. What is the topic of the article “The Better Angels of Our Nature vs. the Internet”? 2. What is the question the Helfand is discussing in the article? 3. What is Helfand’s position? 4. What evidence or reasons (argument) does the Helfand provide in support of his position? 5. Does the evidence or reasons offered in the article provide adequate justification for Helfand’s position? Is it worthy of your belief? Why? Answers of “yes” or “no” will not merit points. Bulleted answers are also unacceptable. When you begin, you should identify whether the article is an opinion piece or contains an argument and why. Bonus question (2 points): What is the difference between an argument and an opinion? columns that might challenge to himself was soon ignored or reorient our educational model your views, or articles on unex- dispatched. Today, the climate to provide spam filters for the pected topics, just the stories and change denier, homeopathic prefrontal cortex--a set of tools opinions that conform to your practitioner, or presidential can- each student can apply in find- (tibal) worldview. didate can easily, quickly, and ing, vetting, and then using valid The "My NPR app and My cheaply raise armies of the un- information to make personal New York Times are no different informed, the gullible, and the decisions and to contribute ra- they allow-even encourage and disenchanted by providing their tionally to civil society. facilitate the narrowing of the echo chambers with any endless Abraham Lincoln ended his consumer's perspective. Further- diet of self-reinforcing nonsense. first inaugural address by ap- more, the Internet provides the This undercuts any possibility pealing to the better angels of possibility of both instantaneous that consumers can make in- our Nature." His context was gratification and instantaneous formed personal decisions, and it the schism between North and feedback, often in extremely poisons the climate for the cre- South, and his appeal was to the negative and destructive ways; ation of effective public policy. common bond of patriotism in i.e., it plays to those primitive, Although the tsunami of mis- the American tribe that he hoped instinctual parts of the brain information may seem daunting, would save the Union. Today, that react when the other is spot- it is essential that we fight back. our angels had better be hard- ted. As Frank Bruni wrote in a The Internet is a neutral repos- headed skeptical rationalists if New York Times op-ed piece this itory, bosting arrant nonsense we are to overcome the neotrib- summer, "We construct pre- and solid evidence with unbiased alism the Internet fosters. May The Internet is a neutralrevositor'. hosting arrant nonsense and solid evidence with unbiased equanimity. The rational mind prides itself on discriminating between the two cisely contoured echo chambers equanimity. The rational mind they sit lightly on our shoulders of affirmation that turn convice prides itself on discriminating and support the next forty years tion into real, passion into fury, between the two. Popularity on of this crucial publication. Ł disagreements with the other the Internet comes from simply side into the demonization of tallying “likes." Popularity in it" ("How Facebook Warps Our science comes from tested con- World," New York Times, May sistency with nature, the only ar- 21, 2016) biter that matters in the end. Ed- David J. Helfand is a professor of Thus, I see the Internet as a ucation is the key to fostering an astronomy at Columbia University, qualitatively different kind of appreciation of these differences. past-president and Vice-Chancel- threat than the printing press or Our traditional model of ed- lor of Quest University Canada, and television. It is a powerful, free, ucation, however, centers on the past-president of the American As- global channel for propagating transfer of information from tronomical Society. He was elected misinformation and disinforna- teacher to student. That model a CSI fellow in 2004. He recently tion. The devious tribesman who is no longer relevant, since in- published his first book for the gen. led his kin away from food sup- formation is virtually unlimited, eral public, A Survival Guide to the plies so he could have them all ubiquitous, and free. We must Misinformation Age. F what is read, seen, or heard. It is an argument worth con- for 99 percent of the past several hundred thousand sidering, but I would challenge years of hominid development, our brains were it with a darker conclusion. The evolving in social settings consisting of small (ten to printing press, radio, and televi- thirty), mostly kin groups of hunter-gatherers. One greatsion, as implemented, did much benefit of this arrangement is that it fostered altruism: as to open people's horizons to the E.O. Wilson argues persuasively (The Social Conquest of outside world. They brought new Earth, 2012), a selfish person will always out-compete an ideas, new peoples, and new cul- altruist, but a group of altruists will always out-compete a tures into purview, all within the group of selfish people . Those groups that cooperated in safety of one's home, without the the hunt and shared the roasted zebra around the campfire triggering fears that a direct con- frontation with the other might in- prospered, while those who fought over the spoils of the duce. They are also media that are day were eliminated from the gene pool. consumed passively-there is no There is a downside, however, He sought to place the In- opportunity for instant feedback to the social milicu in which our ternet in the context of commu- meaning there is time to reflect on brains evolved: outsiders were nication revolutions of the past considered (and probably often (the printing press, radio, televi- The Internet is fundamentally were) the enemy, the orber. sion, and movies), and noted that different. It offers the consumer This instilled an innate fear and loathing of the other in the more primitive parts of the brain, The prefrontal cortex can, of course, override this (now often irratio- A selfish person wilt na]) fear, but it works slower and takes effort. Part of that effort we always out-compete an. call education; unfortunately, not altruist, but a group of all of our institutions engaging in education today put this role altruists will always front and center in what they do. out-compete a group of For his commencement ad- dress at Columbia University this selfish people. year, President Lee C. Bollinger, a noted First Amendment scholar, chose to explore some of the distressing challenges cur- when each of these new modes many ways to tailor the incoming rently facing societies founded of mass communication became information so that it conforms on democratic values (e.g., the available, there was a reflexive re- to his or her own (tribal) views: recent election in Austria and action to worry about the chaos the “My News” app from the the rise of authoritarian and xe- they might bring and calls for Wall Street Journal boasts that nophobic tendencies in many them to be regulated heavily lest you can customize your My democratic countries, including they be misused to support total- News' collections to receive arti- our own). In particular, his con- itarian ends. In fact, these fears cles, videos, and slideshows from cern was with the Internet and proved to be largely unfounded. the columns, sections, industries, whether its characteristics were He admonished us to keep that and companies you want." Not a significant contributor to these in mind when we decry the ex- the range of opinion (such as it disturbing trends. cesses of the Internet today. is) on the editorial pages, not
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