How would you restructure the production of education and research? Universities are clearly pretty inefficient. How to improve them? Are there any politically feasible plans? Will AIs just obviate internal reform by creating an entirely new form of education and research?
The biggest problem that I see in college education is that most people don’t actually want to learn very much. College social life is undeniably fun, and although most people find a few classes they enjoy, they’re there for the experience + the credential.
I don’t know how to fix it because I think there is demand for the current system, but there should be at least one college with unlimited enrollment that is rigorous enough that it weeds out the people who aren’t giving it their best effort. Maybe it should be self-paced, with a massive total learning requirement so that it takes the best students four years and others longer. The degree would be worth more than other degrees in the end because it is so rigorous.
I think recorded lectures would be a part of it, but you’d probably still need/want human tutors and performance coaches. Motivation is often the scarce factor; if it wasn’t you could learn just about anything with a library card.
AI can help with both content and motivational scripts but I don’t think it’s a radical difference from what we can do now with non-AI methods.
If Rigorous U took off this would separate researchers further from undergraduate students. Research labs could be separate institutions even. I’d like to see researchers spend more time exposed to industry. At least once in their career they should take a basic science breakthrough and try to take it all the way to commercialization. Yes, there are gains from specialization, but there are also gains from a broader range of experience and contacts.
I’m not optimistic that any of this is socially or politically feasible.
How would you restructure the production of education and research? Universities are clearly pretty inefficient. How to improve them? Are there any politically feasible plans? Will AIs just obviate internal reform by creating an entirely new form of education and research?
The biggest problem that I see in college education is that most people don’t actually want to learn very much. College social life is undeniably fun, and although most people find a few classes they enjoy, they’re there for the experience + the credential.
I don’t know how to fix it because I think there is demand for the current system, but there should be at least one college with unlimited enrollment that is rigorous enough that it weeds out the people who aren’t giving it their best effort. Maybe it should be self-paced, with a massive total learning requirement so that it takes the best students four years and others longer. The degree would be worth more than other degrees in the end because it is so rigorous.
I think recorded lectures would be a part of it, but you’d probably still need/want human tutors and performance coaches. Motivation is often the scarce factor; if it wasn’t you could learn just about anything with a library card.
AI can help with both content and motivational scripts but I don’t think it’s a radical difference from what we can do now with non-AI methods.
If Rigorous U took off this would separate researchers further from undergraduate students. Research labs could be separate institutions even. I’d like to see researchers spend more time exposed to industry. At least once in their career they should take a basic science breakthrough and try to take it all the way to commercialization. Yes, there are gains from specialization, but there are also gains from a broader range of experience and contacts.
I’m not optimistic that any of this is socially or politically feasible.