Research Bulletin

Research Bulletin

Volume XXII Spring/Summer 2017 Volume XXII • Number 1 • Number 1 Research Institute for Waldorf Education

RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR WALDORF PUBLICATIONS at the RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR WALDORF EDUCATION 38 Main Street Chatham, NY 12037 EDUCATIONWaldorf

Table of Contents

From the Editor ...... 3 Elan Leibner

Technology and the Consciousness Soul Ideas for Educators of the New Generation...... 5 Christof Wiechert

Beyond the Virtual Sensorium...... 12 Jason Yates

Computer Science for Ninth and Tenth Grades...... 19 Charles Weems

Computers and Intelligence ...... 25 Harlan Gilbert

Technology and the Laws of Thought Part 2 ...... 33 Gopi Krishna Vijaya

Technology and the Celebration of Work as Developed in Waldorf Education...... 51 David Mitchell

Dyslexia in the Waldorf Classroom Survey of North American Waldorf Schools...... 60 Lalla Carini

Book Review: Postformal Education: A Philosophy for Complex Futures by Jennifer Gidley...... 66 David K. Scott

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Report from the Online Waldorf Library ...... 69 Marianne Alsop

Report from Waldorf Publications ...... 70 Patrice Maynard

About the Research Institute for Waldorf Education...... 71

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Elan Leibner

ear Readers, Charles Weems is another unusual This issue of the Research Bulletin is the second contributor. He has 40 years of college teaching Dconsecutive one devoted almost entirely to the experience in computer science and 28 textbooks theme of technology. Two of the articles are to his credit. For the past 15 years he has taught second installments of longer pieces, while all but at the Hartsbrook School in Massachusetts, one of the others are entirely new contributions. and in his article he describes a curriculum Every author recognizes this topic as one of the he has developed for ninth and tenth grades. essential conundrums of our time. It is clear Weems is intent on bringing his students to a that the development of digital capabilities clear experience of the differences between a has created a void of corresponding moral and human being and a machine, and counts on this ethical capacities for using those capabilities experience to help orient them toward their appropriately, and, in one form or another, all of uniquely human tasks. the articles grapple with this void. Harlan Gilbert meditates on similar themes. Christof Wiechert, former head of the He looks for the tasks that technological develop- Pedagogical Section in Dornach, addresses the ment has placed before modern humanity and need for education to embed technology in the adds to the conversation an important theme: widest human context. Following Alvin Toffler’s the redemption of the very beings to whom our description of the three waves of technological technological devices have given an abode. He innovation, Wiechert connects this sequence challenges us to cultivate the twin attributes to Rudolf Steiner’s evolution of consciousness. of freedom and love and suggests some of the He argues for overcoming the one-sided requisite attitudes that can lead us forward. intellectualization of society and education in The second installment of Gopi Krishna favor of a comprehensive integration of the full Vijaya’s contribution on Technology and the Laws range of human potential. of Thought enters directly into the historical Jason Yates continues his superb treatment evolution of thinking and logic. He shows with of current trends in technological development an abundance of examples and detail how the with the contemplation of artificial intelligence modern attitudes about the nature of thinking and virtual reality. Building on the theme of and consciousness evolved from Greek to modern the digital gesture developed in the first article times. He then points to the inherent flaws and (Research Bulletin 21-2, Autumn/Winter 2016), holes in restricting the possibility for thinking he points at the dangers and assumptions, often to transcend its supposed limits. His essay is indistinguishable from each other, that must not an easy read, but those who persevere be met and challenged if we are to maintain will be rewarded with fruits of a thoroughly a humane and moral environment. Yates is an researched and painstakingly mapped journey unusual “bird”: a therapeutic eurythmist highly of our perception of the mind. It is a significant literate in technology who is a fine explicator of contribution to our theme of technology. digital esoterica in a language that laypeople The final contribution dealing directly with can understand. technology is from the Research Institute’s late

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co-director, David Mitchell. It is an article derived rapid increase of the free resources available from a talk he gave in Norway in 2012 and stands through the Online Waldorf Library. up remarkably well to the changes that have Finally, a personal note: This is my final issue come about since it was written. Mitchell was as editor of the Research Bulletin. I came onboard prescient in seeing the challenges, opportunities, for Volume 16 back in 2011 and have enjoyed and pedagogical implications of computer this task very much. The opportunity to sift technology. He convened the first Waldorf high through the research and the contributions has school teachers’ colloquium addressing this topic given me additional appreciation for the striving in the late 1980s and was immediately concerned and integrity that people all over the world are with incorporating and balancing, rather than bringing to their tasks as Waldorf teachers. avoiding or attacking, the emerging technological As editor, I have tried to shift the focus of reality. the Bulletin from having been a publication Lalla Carini reports on a survey she that aimed to present Waldorf education to the conducted regarding the way dyslexia is academic community toward the needs of those diagnosed and treated in Waldorf schools. She who are our actual readers, namely practicing points out that schools differ greatly in the way Waldorf educators. My guiding question has they approach this important issue and that been: Is there a new thought in this piece, there is a need for teachers, therapists, and something that an experienced Waldorf teacher parents to work together in order to support will find quickening for his or her work? With students. We decided to include this report Douglas Gerwin, my late wife Tertia Gale, and me, in an issue dedicated to technology because we had three seasoned Waldorf folks who had to there is no question that the natural follow-up find something intriguing and worthwhile if an to a discussion of technology in a pedagogical article was to appear in these pages. I hope that context is therapeutic considerations. Though you, the readers, have indeed found the articles dyslexia is not directly attributable to the stimulating and supportive. influence of technology, Carini’s report can point Douglas, Tertia, and Ann Erwin (layout) have the way towards a collaborative approach to all been a terrific team with whom to work. The therapeutic questions. commitment they have for making sure that David Scott, former Chancellor of the the T’s are crossed and the I’s dotted goes well University of Massachusetts, reviews Jennifer beyond what my skill and patience could have Gidley’s new book, Postformal Education: managed. I also want to express my gratitude to A Philosophy for Complex Futures. Gidley began John Wulsin, who took over as a guest editor for her career as a Waldorf teacher and incorporates the previous issue while I was coping with Tertia’s a deep appreciation of Steiner’s insights into her passing and left several pieces in the hopper for discussion. She is a highly regarded academic this issue. in her native Australia and elsewhere. We are Happy readings! thankful that Arthur Zajonc, Board President of the Research Institute, suggested our publication to Dr. Scott. Reports on the activities of the Research Authors who wish to have articles considered Institute for Waldorf Education close out the for publication in the Research Bulletin issue. Patrice Maynard reports on the many should submit them directly to the Editor at: projects she is spearheading at Waldorf [email protected]. Publications, and Marianne Alsop reports on the

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 Technology and the Consciousness Soul Ideas for Educators of the New Generation

Christof Wiechert

n this article I look at the development of the influence of the railway tracks that, like long technology and the Consciousness Soul in relation spindly fingers, stretched across the American Ito the question of freedom and the future. I have continent toward the West, following the fleeing chosen certain images, not for their own purpose buffalo and Native Americans. A few years later but as illustrations of symptoms that point to came the internal combustion engine (the “Otto transcendent realities working in and through motor”) and the Diesel engine, two inventions them. that dramatically changed the landscape of In his book The Third Wave,1 written towards Europe and America. the end of the twentieth century, the futurologist Toffler names these industrial changes the Alvin Toffler describes how, for five thousand “first wave,” in which physical energy, the power years and more, technology had no widespread of human muscles and human work, is replaced impact on human life. Of course, there were by machines. Soon thereafter comes essentially technical inventions, but they did not significantly a second Industrial Revolution, but we do not change our lifestyle and culture. To be sure, we use that name. With the harnessing of electric know that during times of war, energy, we soon enter the age the ancient Greeks employed With the advent of the of the telegraph and later the technical inventions such as Industrial Revolution, telephone, telex, radio, and burning projectiles that they technological inventions finally television. By this point, lobbed into the vessels of their radically changed daily mass production is already the enemies in order to set fire life and the formation norm and nearly the whole to their sails. But when war of society. world has changed its face ended, so did the use of these through the introduction and pyrotechnics. In other words, if you picture the use of electricity. Toffler names these electronic historical timeline of technology as a function of influences the “second wave,” stating that its daily life, that timeline remains pretty flat until impact was felt less upon our physical energy the 18th century. and more upon our communication skills. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Communication became machine driven—as we suddenly technological inventions are introduced see it today in what we call “social media.”2 to society that radically change daily life and Then Toffler, writing in 1980, predicted the formation of society. In just a few years that, after this second wave, a third wave would a new underclass, the proletariat, arises in emerge to replace our human intelligence Britain; mass poverty grips English society as a with mechanized intelligence. And indeed, the result of the steam engine, which assumes the computerization of our society in the late eighties human tasks of pumping water out of the mines, and early nineties of the last century has brought driving the machinery of the textile industry (the us to a lifestyle today in which computers are a “Spinning Jenny”), and opening the doors to mass normal part of our life. production. Soon thereafter come the steam Toffler also predicted that the rate of these locomotive and the railways. We cannot describe developments would speed up, getting faster and the history of the U.S. without acknowledging faster, to the point where we would be asking

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ourselves, Where will this end? Indeed, based on Atlantis, the first Utopia. Bacon died at the age of Toffler’s work, we may ask ourselves, Will there 65 as a consequence of one of his experiments: be a fourth wave? He wanted to know how ice could preserve Before addressing this question, I would like meat, but caught a cold during his research and to spool back to the endpoint in the flat timeline died of pneumonia. History is unclear whether of technology when a huge spike in this line can he retained contacts with Rosicrucians on the be observed—a spike as high and as sudden as European continent. But according to Rudolf the Rocky Mountains suddenly jutting out from Steiner, Bacon had an important mission to fulfill the vast expanse of the plains of the American that was inspired by Christian Rosenkreutz, just as Midwest. Is it possible to understand the source Shakespeare and Rembrandt had, too.3 of this eruption? * * * I would now like to take a leap forward of The Poor Chicken 362 years to 1988, when, two years before his At the beginning of what historians call the death and sick with leukemia, the American Age of Enlightenment, a leading scientist of his psychologist B.F. Skinner was sitting at his desk in day put a timepiece on a piece of wood, grasped the cellar of his home at Harvard and writing his a chicken in his left hand and, with an axe in last book. his right hand, cut off the head of this animal, As the inventor of programmed learning, then watched his timepiece to see how long this programmed instruction, and the teaching animal would flutter around before it died. machine, Skinner was world famous as an Later he wrote that he would stretch Mother articulate spokesman for Behaviorism. Based Nature on the rack and torture her secrets from on his famous lab experiments with pigeons her. In this brutal scene, we witness the birth of and rats, among other creatures, he concluded empiricism, in which nature became the object of that human behavior can be trained and by a new kind of research. This research limited itself means of a very basic system of stimulus and to those aspects of the natural world—namely response. Through this insight he developed a its physical or material elements—that we can form of operative conditioning of human beings, see and measure and from which we can draw intellectual but also social. He claimed that, using conclusions through what is called an inductive this method, it would be possible to condition method. This scientist strove strictly to separate humans to behave in socially desired ways. These himself as an individual and objective researcher ideas he had woven many years earlier into his from the object of his research. For him, the two first novel, entitled Walden Two—again, a Utopia. had nothing in common. Today we honor him as But he could not answer a basic question: Who the father of modern empirical science and as the should decide which behaviors would be the pioneer of its method. His main scientific opus is most appropriate. And now he sat at his desk to entitled Novum Organum Scientiarum. write his last thoughts. The title of his last and This empiricist was Francis Bacon, later Lord dark vision of the future was Beyond Freedom Bacon of Verulam, Lord Chancellor to the English and Dignity. For this negative Utopia he was royal court, and a high-ranking philosopher of the heavily criticized by Noam Chomsky, who, like British Renaissance (1561–1626). Following years other former students of Skinner, felt uneasy in of research he wrote a novel in which he sketched the presence of Skinner and his ideas. a world of prosperity and peace in which people But in Skinner we see finally how the lived under the wise counsel of a Rosicrucian scientific method of empiricism targets the nature Leadership that guided society according to the of the human being. The soul becomes defined rules of this new science. The book was Nova

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as mechanical. In modern thinking everything on we know the names of the designers of the earth, in heaven, and in man is understood this patrician villas in Rome, with their floor heating way. Life processes, as well as social processes, and running water? Who invented the hot-air are understood to be mechanical processes. heating in these houses? In Rome there were Since image-producing methods in hundreds of artists creating wall paintings and neuroscience and psychology became popular at sculptures inside and outside the houses of the the end of the last century, since the unraveling wealthy. Going even further back, who designed of the human genome, the scientific method that the Greek temples, the Egyptian pyramids, and started with Bacon has finally overwhelmed all most remarkably, who were the technicians who disciplines in human biology and medicine. actually built them or who erected such simple The movement for humane psychology, things as the obelisks? initiated by Carl Rogers4 in the 1980s, was We know that we don’t know, since all of virtually forgotten by the turn of the century these artistic and scientific works were completed twenty years later. In 2002 the American Review anonymously. (There are a few exceptions, of of General Psychology declared course, in the works of Homer, Skinner the most important Rudolf Steiner expressed Aristotle, Plato, Aeschylus, and psychologist of the 20th the idea that in medieval a few others.) century, even ahead Freud, times and before, the act Why is this the case? Could Jung, Piaget, and Adler. it be that during these ancient Although the universities of intellectual activity times the individual did not and their departments of was experienced as a gift experience himself in his work philosophy continue to say from outside. as an individual? Is it possible that science, by definition, that these masterpieces of art, embraces a variety of theories, the dominant and construction, and design were not seen as the undisputed approach is that of empiricism, or work of an individual person but as an expression positivism, in nearly all subjects. Especially in the of something else? medical field but also in the arena of education, Rudolf Steiner expressed the idea that, in empirical scientific technology is mainstream. medieval times and before, the act of intellectual Indeed, between the times of Lord Bacon and activity was experienced as a gift from outside. B.F. Skinner, step by step the scientific approach Ideas were believed to be not produced by man has come closer and closer to the realm of himself but as an inspiration from out of the technology. Today technology and this form of spiritual world that came to manifestation in the science are seen as being identical. Science and mind or artistic creation of the individual thinker technology have become an inseparable pair. (In or artist. Not “I think,” but “it thinks in me” was, the meantime they have developed a menage according to Steiner, the general attitude and a trois, with economics or business as the third feeling. partner.) And it was again Steiner who stated that from the 15th century on, step by step, this attitude Intelligence and the Individual was replaced by the experience, “I think. My In art history it is well known that before thought is me.” From there to “my brain thinks” the Renaissance it is hard to identify the names is a small yet significant further step. It is the of great artists. Who designed the huge French transition from inspirational thinking to brain- cathedrals? Who built them? Who were the based thinking, or, in other words, from the brain artists who made the marvelous stained glass as receiver to the brain as producer.5 windows in these houses of worship? Do

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For educators it is so important just to think What Happens to Inspiration this thought, just to realize there was a time, not (and Intuition)? so long ago, when man was not identified by his The best way to answer the question, “What or her intellectual performance, but by what he happens to inspiration or intuition?” is to follow or she did. the explanations Steiner gave. As we have seen, We live in the 21st century in the hypertrophy intelligence was once understood as a capacity of intellectualism. Man is judged by intellectual flowing into the human being from outside. performance, and its worth is measured and Steiner called it a cosmic force; this cosmic force rewarded by a paycheck. The whole educational was given from the power of a cosmic being. system depends on this modern (and false) Steiner identified that being as the one known in premise. Every day now we see on TV and read the Christian tradition as the Archangel Michael. in the newspapers that the world is depending Steiner continued to use this name. Cosmic less on human intellect and increasingly on intelligence was once held by Michael and was other external powers, powers of artificial distributed to those who needed it. Steiner once intelligence—and these are mostly powers of spoke of Michael as the fiery-thought-king who in destruction. his evolution was seen (in the stories of the Old Testament) as the face of Jahve and in the New Manufactured Intelligence and Testament as the face of Christ. The meaning of Inspiration his name is a question: Who is like God? The wonderful thing about anthroposophy It is not easy to feel and find words for the is that it widens our horizons into greater and cosmic drama that unfolded as, step by step, greater perspectives. One of these perspectives the reins over intelligence slipped from the grip is Steiner’s idea of the Consciousness Soul. What of Michael into the hands of human beings. does he mean by this soul? He Humanity was just starting to is referring here to the capacity Intellectual development develop the Consciousness of each mature human being to is only one aspect of Soul in order to be able to use our individual intellectual society. Other aspects hold that great power of powers in service to what our are those dealing with intelligence.6 conscience says we must do. emotions, actions, About fifty years ago This is the step in development physical work, moral human beings began to have from what Steiner calls the the capacity to know that their Intellectual (or Mind) Soul to dilemmas, and challenges powers of the intellect could the Consciousness Soul. The with social life as such. either create or destroy our task of the Intellectual Soul world. This is the responsibility is to exercise the abstract thinking capacity and of the newly developing Consciousness Soul. Why to make mankind ready to receive the intellect is this? It is because a part of the destiny of our as an individual gift and tool. By contrast, the evolution is freedom. And freedom exists only if task of the Consciousness Soul (or conscience there are choices. Now, science and technology soul) is to use the intellect in a way we could call can either destroy or build and develop our “responsibility for humanity.” This enormous physical substance and the substance of our step in evolution began in the 15th century and it earth. will need several hundred years more to mature The same possibility will happen soon completely. with the human soul as bearer of the “Human Identity.” In Europe, an advertisement in the newspaper Neue Züricher Zeitung by the

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electronic firm ABB shows a nice young lady always accompanied by the qualities of the heart. sitting at a lab table, and next to her a two-armed (Here heart is used as a metaphor that indicates robot. The text reads: “ABB develops the ‘you.me’ and includes a morally guided feeling life.) If that technology. You (being the robot) and me (being would happen, it would change the intellect’s the young lady).” And then follows this sentence: perspective of the future. This perspective, as it is The Fourth Industrial Revolution now, has this design: An isolated has started. We see in this ad The task of the intellect in man thinks it works for the integration of machines into Consciousness Soul the good when in fact it produces the human being. The human is to use the intellect various forms of evil. Isolated intelligence alone is no longer in a way we could intellectual activity produces adequate or advanced enough call “responsibility evil while convincing itself it is and must incorporate the robot’s for humanity.” working for the better, for the intelligence into her work. The good. implication is that the intelligence of combining In this battle in which we are engaged human and machine capacity engenders “The nowadays, we see this force of the intellect Fourth Industrial Revolution.” in technology, in politics, in trade treaties, Does this make sense to us? Is this our in the world of agriculture. Most currents in future? Life is now all about these questions. education today appear designed to prepare In fact it is the question of the future of our new generations for a life ruled by the isolated intelligence, of the intellectual capacities in man. intellect. In education it is now normal to say we live in a society of the intellect—everything is about the The Answer of Education intellect and the highest possible achievements It should be the mission of modern education there. This is what brings the individual to being to develop the intellectual powers ever in recognized as the best possible member of connection with other capacities of the becoming society. human being. From Howard We can look at this from The key to teaching Gardner we know that there a different perspective and are many more “intelligences” classes on technologies 9 say, “Intellectual development would be to anchor than the intellectual. With the is only one aspect of society. image-making tool available Other aspects are those dealing them within the context for research in neuroscience, with emotions, dealing with of meaning and human the fMRI, we know that when actions and physical work, relationships. children are engaged in an dealing with moral dilemmas artistic activity, all parts of the and challenges, dealing with social life as such. brain are also engaged and “lit up.” It is not so If all these other aspects were directed solely by difficult to design a curriculum that is oriented to our intellect, we would end with B.F. Skinner’s develop the whole human being, as well as the idea of a future society.” That is the reason whole brain. The achievements of such schools as Rudolf Steiner repeatedly emphasized do not Waldorf (or Steiner) schools show that this is an let the intellect develop alone! Give it a lifelong option that already exists. companionship of human feelings.7 Or, as he A new challenge in education is to find ways stated it in another context, educate in a way that to develop in our youngsters an awareness of hearts start to think.8 the ways in which scientific technology can creep This would be a genuinely new kind of into the smallest corners of their individual lives, thinking, the new intellect: a thought life that is turning them to objects for public consumption.

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In North America there is a good program that and sources in a meaningful, responsible way, offers to develop such an awareness, including just as they have to learn to ride a bike and to helpful practices for young people. It should be drive a car. The key in teaching these classes on taught in all practical skills classes [Ed. comment: technologies would be to anchor them within the This is a term used in European Waldorf schools context of meaning and human relationships. for which we do not have an equivalent in North America] in the upper elementary and Summary high school grades. This course is called Cyber Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophical Leading Civics, a program that helps “students wisely and Thoughts (GA 26, 2002), which summarizes confidently use electronic technologies and the results of Spiritual Science, concludes, not social media.” by coincidence, precisely Recently the British It should be the mission with these questions government commissioned of modern education to about the relationship of research about the influence develop the intellectual man to technology. And of social media on the powers ever in connection we understand that this is wellbeing of children and with other capacities of precisely because Leading young people, “Resilience for the becoming human Thoughts ends with the the Digital World: Research being. future, our future. Perhaps it into children and young could be meaningful then to people’s social and emotional wellbeing online.” end this short overview with just these important (Young Minds eNewsletter and Ecories). The (and prophetic) thoughts: programs developed from this research could be used in Waldorf schools, perhaps not at the “183. In the age of Natural Science, since early age that the research reports advise, but about the middle of the nineteenth century, certainly from sixth grade on. They can also the civilized activities of mankind are gradually inspire Waldorf teachers to develop variations sliding downward, not only into the lowest of these curricula, always following the idea regions of Nature, but even beneath Nature. that the human being is in command of his/ Technical Science and Industry have entered her (technological) helpers, and that electronic sub-nature.” devices are tools, not commanders. This is not at all a soft or sentimental subject, especially if one In other comments, Steiner defines forces of recognizes the devastating effects that habits of magnetism and electricity as coming from below addiction have on children and adolescents. We the earth’s surface—sub-earthly forces. He goes have a growing body of evidence that documents on to explain these are more difficult for us to levels of implicit or hidden addiction in the use of manage than substances and forces that we use these technological tools, even among adults. from the earth’s surface. Hence his next thought: Steiner advised high school teachers to devote at least one hour a week, starting in “184. This makes it urgent for man to find in tenth grade, to the theme of technology. If we conscious experience a knowledge of the Spirit, understand well the times in which we live, we wherein he will rise as high above Nature as could imagine that, from the sixth grade on, in sub-natural technical activities he sinks elementary schools could establish a weekly hour beneath her. He will thus create within him the for the practical study of the most helpful and inner strength not to go under. responsible uses of electronic devices and media. Students would be taught to use electronic tools

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“185. A past conception of Nature still bore Christof Wiechert was a pupil at the Waldorf within it the Spirit with which the source of all school in the Hague, Netherlands. After studying human evolution is connected. By degrees, this education and geography, he spent 30 years Spirit vanished altogether from man’s theory of teaching at the Waldorf school in the Hague. Nature. The purely Ahrimanic spirit has entered During this time he was co-founder of the Dutch in its place, and passed from theory of Nature State Waldorf Teacher Training Seminar. For into the technical civilization of mankind.” many years he was a Council member in the Anthroposophical Society in the Netherlands. Those who study anthroposophy understand Together with Ate Koopmans he developed the Ahriman as a higher spiritual entity who works “Art of Child Study” course. He has lectured to lead human evolution downward, away from worldwide. the maximum development of individuality and Since September 1999 he has worked for individual freedom. This engendered Steiner’s the Pedagogical Section, from October 2001 vision of an education designed to balance to December 2010 as head of the Educational this “Ahrimanic spirit” with a human spirit re- Department of the School for Spiritual Science connected to Nature, strong enough to utilize at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. He the high intelligence of Ahriman and mindful now continues to work for the School of Spiritual enough to cultivate warmth of heart and “heart Science at the Goetheanum and on pedagogical intelligence.” and anthroposophical themes in different countries. He is married with five children. ENDNOTES 1. Alvin Toffler (1928–2016). Two of his books are important in the context of this article, The Future Shock and The Third Wave. 2. There is a certain gesture in the fact that at Michaelmas, 1879, the first electric streetlights lit up Times Square in the heart of New York City. 3. Rudolf Steiner, “Man, being, spirit, soul,” 3rd lecture, The Science of Spirit and Modern Soul. 4. Carl Rogers, (1902–1987). Famous psychotherapist, professor at University of California Berkeley. He stated that without empathy the doctor-client relation would not work. See: Counseling and Psychotherapy. 5. Within this context we can understand that Steiner criticized Descartes and his famous quote, “Cogito ergo sum,” “I think, therefore I am.” Steiner bluntly asked, “And when man sleeps, he does not exist because he does not think?” Steiner in Study of Man, second lecture, August 22, 1919. 6. Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophical leading thoughts, (GA 26) The experiences of Michael in the course of his cosmic mission. 7. Recommend further reading: Steiner’s lectures (GA 177) on “The Fall and the Spirits of Darkness.” 8. Steiner, op.cit., “At the Dawn of the Michael Age.” 9. Howard Gardner (2006). Multiple intelligences. New Horizons, completely revised edition.

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 Beyond the Virtual Sensorium

Jason Yates

Introduction block video puzzle”—“From Russia with Fun!”— In the first article of this series (Research was Tetris. Bulletin 21-2, Autumn/Winter 2016), I outlined The game’s simplicity made it instantly a digital mode of thinking, or “digital gesture,” playable. As blocks of different shapes fell from that stands behind virtually every modern the top of the screen at an ever-increasing pace, technological innovation. I traced the digital the player had to rotate them mid-descent in gesture from its beginnings in language and order to form solid, horizontal rows that would mathematics through to the sublime achievement then disappear from the playing area. If an of creating an artificial life form. It was suggested unordered pile of blocks reached the top of the that an awareness of the digital gesture could screen, you lost. If, however, you managed to be the basis for a healthy orientation within a get through all of the levels, you were rewarded cultural context increasingly dominated by digital with a crude animation of small dancing figures technology and as a countermeasure against the in Russian garb followed immediately by a space threat of digital idolatry. shuttle, rocket boosters and all, launching slowly With the biases implicit in the digital gesture into the digital sky: gravity overcome at last. as a background, I will endeavor in this second And, other than the option of choosing a track of article to unfold some of the experiences and simple electronic music to loop endlessly while current thinking surrounding the actual use of playing, that was it. digital technology, with particular focus on virtual I played this game for an uncountable reality and artificial intelligence, two domains number of hours. And so did every other person I that are currently enjoying a renaissance fueled knew who owned the game. Technically speaking, by Medici-an levels of patronage. Perspectives on one could also play with another person, taking the possible ramifications of digitally enhanced turns to see who could reach the highest level, experiences for the future development of but I tried this on only a handful of occasions. human beings will be explored in a third (and For me, the best part of the game was that I final) article. could always begin again if I made a mistake, and, given sufficient time and concentration, that I A Bit of Personal History could master the game completely. There was no When I was a teenager, the way I viewed ostensible reward, only total immersion in the act and interacted with the world changed radically of playing. after I received an unanticipated gift: a Nintendo Today, of course, to play a game of Tetris on Gameboy. Although it was not as technically a tiny monochrome screen capable of rendering sophisticated as other portable video game only four (!) shades of gray would be a positively systems of the time, the Gameboy was well- archaic act, reserved solely for the purposes of designed, had good battery life, and, most nostalgia.1 Though I personally have no desire to importantly, was bundled with a game familiar play again, one memory associated with Tetris to almost anyone of my generation. That game, comes back to me with particular strength: described on its cover as a “relentless building I can vividly recall lying in bed after hours of

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game playing, closing my eyes, and seeing, not No home was sweet without a Gameboy in darkness, but clearly defined shapes of light that 1990. That year, I stayed for a week with a appeared to fall through my visual field. Over and friend in Tokyo, and Tetris enslaved my brain. over, they would appear, move, and disappear of At night, geometric shapes fell in the darkness their own accord, seemingly independent of my as I lay on loaned tatami floor space. Days, I participation. I had no choice but to wait for the sat on a lavender suede sofa and played Tetris phenomenon to pass before finally being able to furiously. During rare jaunts from the house, I fall asleep. visually fit cars and trees and people together. I have had other experiences of similar Dubiously hunting a job and a house, I was phenomena in my adult life. I worked for a time still there two months later, still jobless, still as a 3D modeler, a job that entailed long hours playing. (Goldsmith 1994) of creating objects within a three-dimensional simulation of space generated by computer Such experiences are particularly impressive software. After a work session, I was able to close when one considers that they were precipitated my eyes and see the contours of the shapes I by impressions resulting from a display that was had been constructing. I could rotate them in less than four inches square and a game pad with my mind’s eye, viewing them from any angle. Or, two buttons. again, after working for some time on an image That was then. Most modern games in a computer-aided design application, I became place much higher demands on the gamer’s accustomed to liberal use of the attention. How much higher? An “Control + Z” key combination Investigators have experienced player taking part in on my keyboard to “undo” begun to call the a real-time strategy game must any mistakes or to go quickly aftermath of gaming track dozens or even hundreds backward in time to a previous on everyday life of independent variables, issue a iteration. I would then find myself variety of commands in multiple inwardly reaching for these keys Game Transfer contexts using a full computer immediately after making a Phenomena (GTP). keyboard and multi-button mouse, mistake in the real world. Upon and perform hundreds of actions breaking a cup in the sink, for instance, I could per minute in order to be competitive with other quite literally feel an inner movement toward players.2 The psychological and sensorial effects keys that were not there, accompanied by a of modern video gaming have only recently strong intention to “undo” the event. become the subject of empirical research. Investigators have begun to call the aftermath Virtual Afterimages of gaming on everyday life Game Transfer It turns out that I was not alone in having Phenomena (GTP). One recent paper reports these experiences. Although I was unaware that out of a sample of over two thousand self- of it at the time, the tendency for developing reporting gamers, 97% had experienced moments phantom sense impressions following immersion of GTP, which included: in a game world had already been given a name by the late 1990s. Without any irony whatsoever, ...seeing game tags above peoples’ heads, these and similar phenomena came to be known seeing maps in the corner of the eye, hearing as the “Tetris effect,” after an article in Wired music coming from the console when it is magazine in which the author described his own turned off, hearing voices in the head or encounter with the notoriously addictive game: coming from objects associated with the game, perceiving objects as distorted, feeling tactile

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sensations of game pads when not playing, screen also elegantly solved the problem of confusing memories from the game with those aiming ordnance that otherwise had no direct from real life, and saying something from the relationship to the pilot’s body. The next logical game without intending to, etc. (Angelica B. development was to create flight simulators that Ortiz de Gortari 2016) required no physical relationship to any kind of real equipment at all (aside from the simulator, of To reiterate: these are phenomena experienced course). in waking consciousness when not in front Which brings us to the present moment. of a screen. The same study also found that The most conspicuous accoutrements of VR are as the time spent “within the game world” relatively well known: head-mounted displays, increased, so too the frequency of GTP outside data gloves or suits that track movement, and it. Moreover, over half of the handheld input devices with force respondents who experienced Immersion in virtual feedback. Until very recently, the most severe effects reported reality creates these types of hardware were the phantom sensations as being immediate bodily largely consigned to the world “pleasant” and more than forty sensations that are of academia due to their high percent specifically hoped that closely entrained— cost, bulkiness, and processing the phenomena would reoccur. in real time—to demands. Today they are available Playing with the intention of on Amazon. escaping the real world also had a simulated events. Almost three years ago, high correlation with severe GTP. Google released a product Particularly striking is a similar survey that found dubbed “Cardboard” as a proof-of-concept that the few gamers who reported having never meant to demonstrate the growing capabilities experienced any GTP also never recalled their of its smartphones and generate interest in dreams. (Angelica B. Ortiz de Gortari 2015) Put VR. “Cardboard” consists of two inexpensive the other way around, only those having an active lenses mounted in a piece of precision-cut dream life were susceptible to the hallucinatory cardboard that can be folded into the form of effects of their gaming sessions.3 a head-mounted display (HMD). A smartphone fits into the HMD and, using a compatible app, Virtual Reality the phone’s display is divided into two smaller Like the internet, virtual reality, or VR, sprang images that appear as a single three-dimensional into existence in answer to a problem perceived image when viewed through the HMD’s lenses. by the U.S. military. And, like the internet, VR Contemporaneously with Google’s foray into VR, has grown well beyond the problem for which Facebook spent two billion dollars to buy a small it was originally conceived. So much so, that startup company that was poised to release its heads-up displays—designed in the 1960s for own HMD. Now a commercial product, the high- multi-million dollar fighter jets—have now resolution “Rift” headset has integrated speakers arrived at a smartphone near you. Or, at least, and movement sensors capable of producing fully something like their great-grandchildren has. In immersive VR experiences and costs less than a aviation, the heads-up display eliminated the midrange laptop. need for cramming a large display screen into a Microsoft, by contrast, is following a small cockpit by creating a “virtual” screen that somewhat different path when it comes to appeared to float in front of the pilot’s field of the future of digital enhancement. Its HMD— vision. When combined in a helmet with sensors called HoloLens—is designed to augment the capable of tracking head movements, the virtual real world rather than simulate a virtual one.

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The HoloLens is a self-contained “holographic it. But, when the movements of the head are computer” that allows the user to see through integrated with the visual and auditory systems its semi-transparent screen into the real world through binocular and binaural simulations, the where three-dimensional “holograms” appear illusion of being present in a virtual world can be to be projected onto objects and surfaces. Using overwhelming. It is nearly impossible to describe the device, an architect can, for instance, have a the experience of fully immersive VR. It is, quite fully realized model of a building appear on the literally, awesome. People experiencing it for the kitchen table, complete with simulated people, first time will often react emotionally by crying trees, and shadows. Moving around the table in out, or viscerally by losing their balance (or the real world yields the user views of the virtual lunch), or psychologically by losing all sense of building consistent with its orientation on the time. Unlike “game transfer phenomena” which table. Or, because the device can track a user’s manifest as aftereffects, immersion in VR creates hand movements, the model can be rotated by immediate bodily sensations that are closely reaching out and “moving” it into a different entrained—in real time—to simulated events.6 position on the table. If VR simulates a whole world, augmented reality (AR) creates “real” Enter Artificial Intelligence hallucinations in the ordinary world.4 Reserving three billion dollars for “human- machine combat teaming” (a.k.a. “Centaur Hierarchy of Simulation Warfighting”) doesn’t seem like much of a Strictly speaking, even when portrayed in commitment by the Pentagon’s standards. two dimensions, all video games are a kind of Nevertheless, it is a clear indicator that the U.S. virtual reality; they purport to show shapes and military is again helping foment a sea of change. movements where there is neither.5 What is If the goal is to maximize efficiency in warfare, actually seen in a game world—if it is to hang the logic of combining artificial intelligence together as any kind of world at (AI), human beings, and weapon all—are simulacra of objects and Companies heavily systems is difficult to refute on its laws that can be found in the invested in artificial own terms: Let the humans do “real” world. Look away from two- intelligence face whatever they are good at, and dimensional simulations, however, the possibility of let the digital gesture hold sway and the perspective changes. when ultra-fast, highly-coordinated Within the hierarchy of simulation, developing “moral precision is called for. Just as it is proper three-dimensional virtual algorithms.” much less expensive to train pilots reality belongs to the upper on flight simulators, it is also more echelon. In immersive VR, the simulacra take on cost-effective for combat drones to make some of characteristics beyond those attributes found their own decisions without the constant human in phenomena of the outside world. In VR, oversight that they now require. the sensation of presence itself is part of the The moral oblivion of such a scenario simulation. is already being normalized in Silicon Valley Maintaining a connection with the real world as companies heavily invested in AI face the is relatively easy when looking at a traditional possibility of developing “moral algorithms.” computer screen. Even if the content onscreen Google’s self-driving cars are a case in point. is simulating three-dimensional space, one still A recent paper in Science asserts that “the “knows” that it is “just a simulation.” All one has algorithms that control [autonomous vehicles] to do is look behind the screen to see that “there will need to embed moral principles guiding their is no there there,” as Gertrude Stein once put decisions in situations of unavoidable harm.”

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(Bonnefon et al. 2016)7 Engineers who actually sapiens digital” will evolve and be capable of work on the technology, however, are often quick insights to which “the unaided mind will be blind” to point out that, since AI doesn’t think like a (Prensky 2009).10 human being, the possibility of causing harm in Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur the first place can be mitigated through technical and advisory council member to the Trump virtuosity. After all, self-driving cars have yet administration, shares a similar sentiment. to injure a single person despite having driven Musk recently told an audience at the World hundreds of thousands of miles Government Summit in Dubai autonomously.8 By discerning the thread that he expects to see a “closer In addition to a having a spun by the digital merger of biological intelligence stellar driving record, AIs based gesture, educators who and digital intelligence” if on “deep learning” techniques recognize the free, the human race is not to have already bested human human spirit as alone become obsolete in a world of beings at games of chess, Go, capable of moral action artificial intelligences. More and the game show Jeopardy! provocatively, he has also Although all of the examples may confidently lead argued that, given the rapid mentioned so far have emerged even digital natives out gains in the last few decades— from research done in the of the labyrinth. from Tetris to photorealistic U.S., machine intelligence 3D games with millions of developed through deep learning techniques simultaneous users—it will not be long before is not unique to the West. A strategic plan for games “become indistinguishable from reality.” artificial intelligence released late in the Obama Following the trajectory of his own logic and administration identifies China as the leader of taking into account the fact that evolution works new publications in the field.9 on exponentially longer timeframes, he ultimately concludes that “the odds that we’re in base Education and the iGeneration reality is one in billions.” Meaning: We are most Millennials, the original digital natives, are likely already living in a simulation created by already well into adulthood. The subsequent higher intelligences. generation of children—Generation Z or the Fortunately, not all thinkers regard human “iGeneration”—are now, or soon will be, evolution as technologically pre-ordained. In entering school age. While there is, of course, an essay titled “Intellectual Field or Faith-based no consensus as to how current and future Religion: Moving on from the Idea of ‘Digital generations will fare in their encounters with Natives’,” authors Sue Bennett and Karl Maton digital technology, there is a growing chorus of rebut popular ideas about children “growing influencers who see the digital enhancement up digital.” After challenging Prensky’s ideas of the human being as crucial, not just for the regarding homo sapiens digital, the authors progressive evolution of humankind, but for its sum up: very survival. Marc Prensky, a well-known author and speaker on the subject of education and The argument that technology is changing our originator of the term “digital native,” claims society is the weakest of truisms on which to that “the brains of wisdom seekers of the future rest arguments for radical change to current will be fundamentally different, in organization systems and practices. It may not be as sexy and in structure, than our brains are today.” By to proclaim evolution rather than revolution, becoming enhanced through the use of digital or to highlight diversity rather than paint stark technology, he has predicted that a “homo differences, because such notions require

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measured, rational, and sophisticated thinking, sleep disruptions, working memory, attention and a tolerance for ambiguity and careful abilities, and fantasy proneness variables in future consideration rather than sloganeering. Yet studies of GTP.” (p. 281) 4. Sometimes the term “Mixed Reality,” or MR, is used this is what the evidence points to, and this is to describe the use of digital technology to overlay the thinking demanded of us. (Thomas 2011, virtual elements onto a view of the real world. A p.180) company called Magic Leap is building a mixed reality device that is not yet for sale. In lieu of using a Without an enthusiastic challenge furnished binocular or “holographic” approach, the Magic Leap by a true spirit of inquiry, those who, in the device creates solid-seeming objects that “intersect” with the real world by projecting digitally controlled name of progress, would yoke human beings patterns of light directly onto the user’s retina. By to machine intelligence may find their task all eliminating the visual abnormalities associated with too easily accomplished. Foreshadowed by the stereoscopic displays, virtual retinal displays do not concepts inherent in “moral algorithms” and cause virtual reality sickness, symptoms of which simulations “indistinguishable from reality” is a resemble motion sickness. The retinal approach also world in which the faculty for moral imagination creates images of a much higher resolution and visual quality. One reviewer of a Magic Leap prototype may matter less than the tireless, unblinking describes his experience: eye of a digital intelligence. By discerning the “Intellectually, I know this [object] is an thread spun by the digital gesture, educators who elaborate simulation, but as far as my eyes are recognize the free, human spirit as alone capable concerned it’s really there, in that ordinary office. It of moral action may confidently lead even digital is a virtual object, but there is no evidence of pixels natives out of the labyrinth. or digital artifacts in its three-dimensional fullness. If I reposition my head just so, I can get the virtual [object] to line up in front of a bright office lamp ENDNOTES and perceive that it is faintly transparent, but that 1. Feeding nostalgia for old 8-bit games has become big hint does not impede the strong sense of it being business. At the end of 2016, Nintendo released the present.” (Kelly 2016) “NES Classic Edition,” a miniature version of its iconic 5. Does a series of light bulbs lighting up one after the Nintendo Entertainment System originally released other constitute movement? Like a row of bulbs, the in 1985. The new version comes with over two dozen pixels in screen media are fixed and can only brighten of the most popular games from the late 1980s that or go dim; unlike a reel of film moving through a play, sound, and look exactly like the original games. A projector, pixels are unable to move relative to the reported 1.5 million units were sold in less than four light they emit. months, and ongoing demand has led to worldwide 6. Leveraging the powerful experiences afforded by VR product shortages. has already proven to be an effective treatment for 2. The current world record for the number of actions several medical conditions, particularly pain control per minute (APM) in a real-time strategy game is management and the treatment of post traumatic held by Park Sung-joon, a 30-year-old professional stress disorder. One VR engineer successfully gamer. During a world championship competition he created a virtual world that cured his own strabismic once reached an APM of 818, which is more than 13 amblyopia, a condition which was formerly thought actions per second. to be incurable in adults. (Blaha & Gupta 2014) 3. The 2016 article already mentioned summarizes 7. The authors of the paper have launched a website several other dream recall studies as follows: called “Moral Machine” (moralmachine.mit.edu) for “In general, incorporation of video game elements in the purpose of “gathering a human perspective on dreams about video games are [sic] often reported by moral decisions made by machine intelligence.” gamers, and gamers that have experienced GTP have 8. Well, not quite autonomously. There was a human reported similar content in their dreams. ... Moreover, being riding shotgun for nearly all of the miles driven absorption and fantasy proneness have been by Google’s cars. The company has admitted that associated with high recall of dreams. These overall its human overseers have had to take over “many findings suggest that it is opportune to investigate thousands of times” for one reason or another.

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9. A PDF of the strategic plan can be found at: https:// Jason Alexander Yates is a co-worker, house www.nitrd.gov/PUBS/national_ai_rd_strategic_plan. parent, and therapeutic eurythmist at the pdf Cascadia Society for Social Working in North 10. Many believe that VR will play a central role in this evolution. Tom Furness—the man who, in addition Vancouver, British Columbia. He has worked as a to inventing most of the other technologies enabling technology consultant since 1997. VR, created the first helmet-mounted displays for the US Air Force—has founded the “Virtual World Society” (virtualworldsociety.org) in an attempt to beat the swords he helped create into plowshares. One of the organization’s aims is to “turn the living room into the learning room” by introducing children to VR at an early age. Furness believes that VR is a “transportation system for our senses” that will “unlock intelligence and link minds.” Referring to virtual reality’s power to create bodily sensations of being “present,” he says, “When you put people into a place, you put the place into people.” That is, people remember what they learn in the virtual realm because they actually “embody” what they experience there.

REFERENCES Angelica B. Ortiz de Gortari, Ben Oldfield, M.D.G. (2016). “An empirical examination of factors associated with game transfer phenomena severity,” Computers in Human Behavior 64, 274–284. Angelica B. Ortiz de Gortari, M.D.G. (2015). “Game transfer phenomena and its associated factors: An exploratory empirical online survey study,” Computers in Human Behavior 51, 195–202. Blaha, J. & Gupta, M. (2014). “Diplopia: A virtual reality game designed to help amblyopics,” in Virtual Reality (VR), 2014 iEEE, IEEE, pp. 163–164. Bonnefon, J.-F., Shariff, A. & Rahwan, I. (2016). “The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles,” Science 352(6293), 1573–1576. Goldsmith, J. (1994). “This is your brain on Tetris,” Wired 2(5). Kelly, K. (2016). “The untold story of Magic Leap, the world’s most secretive startup,” Wired 24(4). Prensky, M. (2009). “H. sapiens digital: From digital immigrants and digital natives to digital wisdom,” Innovate: Journal of Online Education 5(3). Thomas, M., ed. (2011). Deconstructing digital natives: Young people, technology, and the new literacies, New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 Computer Science for Ninth and Tenth Grades

Charles Weems

n A Modern Art of Education, Rudolf Steiner different encounters with technology that build says, “People are surrounded by inventions of upon one another, while leaving concepts open Ithe human mind, but have no contact at all so they can grow. with them. It is the beginning of an antisocial There are many ways to achieve this goal. life simply to accept inventions of the human Various authors have addressed approaches to mind without at least understanding them in a teaching CS in Waldorf schools over more than general way. … At the age of fourteen or fifteen, two decades.2–7 Some begin from the traditional we must focus our energy on connecting children questions of what, how, why, and who that we with the inventions of the human mind. This associate with the four high school grades, while helps them understand and find their place in others seek to address the thinking, feeling, and society.”1 Digital technology is perhaps the most willing aspects of the human being. Jamie York’s characteristic and multifaceted invention of the survey,3 as well as my own research into online human mind in the present era. It is overturning descriptions of curricula, has also found that social norms at a rapid pace. some schools are more focused Thus, Waldorf high schools owe Waldorf high schools on computer skills (typing, word it to their students to implement owe it to their processing, digital photography, developmentally based students to implement etc.). While some place CS in a instruction in computer science main lesson, others schedule it (CS) that is suited to all students developmentally into track classes with varying in all grades, not just elective based instruction in amounts of time allocated. It courses for those who are computer science. may be a requirement in all four predisposed to have an interest grades, an elective in one grade, in the subject. or a mixture. Traditional high school CS instruction takes its In addition to pedagogical guidance for shape from introductory college courses. There teaching about technology, Steiner gave are two CS advanced placement (AP) exams, his perspectives on its spiritual aspects in one of which matches a typical introduction to a different contexts: for example, its relationship programming course that uses the Java language. to art and culture,8 the nature of elemental The other, called CS Principles, is a non-majors spirits associated with it,9 and the nature of overview of the field. These AP exams follow the number, weight, and measure.10 He describes principle that the earlier a subject is taught, the how technology draws us more deeply into faster students will progress to more advanced materialism, and although this is a necessary subjects. step for human evolution, the being that inhabits As Waldorf teachers are well aware, technology makes it more difficult for us to however, this is not the best practice for truly connect with the spiritual path leading upward. effective teaching. Rather, it is better to work Seemingly in anticipation of modern experience, with students in ways that meet their current he says that when people come together through developmental stage. Thus, in each year of technology, it leads to conflict and destruction. high school, we have an opportunity to create Steiner makes it clear that technology poses a

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threat to our humanness if we don’t consciously our own efforts and refine them, especially in a take up our relationship to it and develop a subject that is changing from year to year. mindset and practices that help us to keep it in Thus, the examples given here should not be proper perspective. seen as prescriptions. They are a work in progress As digital technology advances rapidly, it and are shared at this point merely to stimulate is good to periodically revisit our approaches creative impulses. to teaching computer science. It is also worth For context, I am a professor of computer noting that other parts of the curriculum, science—with forty years of college teaching and especially the humanities, present opportunities fifteen years of Waldorf high school teaching to better support the students in finding their experience—and co-author of twenty-eight way through the fog of technology and toward a introductory textbooks; I have designed and path of evolution that leads humanity upward. If built advanced computers from the design of instructors who work with those custom chips to the construction subjects will take the time to Steiner makes it of working systems. The classes I immerse themselves in the digital clear that technology teach in each grade are offered in landscape, they will find obvious poses a threat to our two forty-five minute periods per connections that can enliven their humanness if we week for a trimester that varies efforts and make them even more don’t consciously from nine to thirteen weeks in relevant to the students of today. take up our length, depending on the school Any curriculum design should relationship to it. calendar. begin from consideration of the A common theme students (we teach students, among prior efforts has been after all, not subjects). What is it that we wish the revelation of the inner working of the to achieve for them? What can we give them of computer: for example, building an adder from lasting significance for their lives? What do we try electromechanical relays. It is indeed important to help them develop inwardly as human beings for students to develop an understanding of how through the encounters and experiences we the hardware works. Fundamentally, computers provide? are very simple machines made from switches Technology offers tremendous benefits to that turn on and off, just like those that control society, but it also comes with many pitfalls. lights or ring doorbells. If the switches are The goal of a CS curriculum should be to help arranged in a fairly simple manner, they can be students find a healthy, moral relationship to this made to operate in a pattern that mimics the artifact, so that they can use it to good effect in pattern of 1s and 0s that appear in a base two the world and not fall prey to its darker side. In addition table. Experiencing this reduces the this way they gain an understanding that permits magical, vaunted machine to something that can them to see it as it truly is, in its different guises be grasped by mere mortals. and manifestations. Early on, I tried the relay adder lesson in Course content for a Waldorf high school tenth grade. However, relays were hard for the class should also arise from the teacher’s students to understand. They were more focused expertise, in combination with an understanding on the novelty of the device than on what the of anthroposophy. While we can take inspiration circuit was doing. It was a leap to grasp the from the work of other teachers, we must be interconnectedness of the relays. Yet, I wanted careful to avoid simply replicating their lessons. this “how” aspect of computer science to For the material to live in the students, it must precede the Electricity and Magnetism block that first live in us. And we must constantly evaluate follows in eleventh grade.

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Relays illustrate a particular aspect of digital Learning to use the breadboard itself was also a switches: namely, that the circuit controlled by distraction. one switch can in turn flip another switch. While Strangely enough, the bridge between the this is an essential element in the automatic two was a logic design program called Logisim.11 operation of a computer, it is not a pattern that In trying it, I was concerned that wiring together most people encounter in ordinary life. People gate symbols on a screen would be too much press buttons. Buttons don’t press each other. of an abstraction. But today’s students are very Thus, it is necessary to temporarily set aside comfortable with seeing icons on a screen as that aspect of digital logic and have the students representations of concrete objects. They quickly do all of the button pressing themselves. They grasp the use of the program and enthusiastically are given boards that hold batteries, a light, and start wiring up and testing circuits. Some even doorbell buttons that are either wired in parallel come in the next day having invented more or series (logical OR and AND), or sophisticated circuits at home. a normally closed button (NOT). The goal of a CS Once the adder is functioning, Each student is responsible for curriculum should a simple cut and paste operation pressing one button. They are be to help students enables them to wire together told to do so either in response find a healthy, multiple copies, resulting in a to an input value, or to a light on moral relationship multiple digit adder. The students another board. With two AND to this artifact so feel a sense of mastery in seeing boards, an OR board, and a NOT they can use it to their creation solving binary board, they are able to mimic addition problems that they had the operation of an exclusive OR good effect in the only recently found challenging. (using OR to mean you can have world. With this experience behind them, ice cream “or” cake, but not both). it is much easier to envision the Exclusive OR is otherwise known as a half-adder gates from their simulation residing inside the because it has the same pattern as adding two chips on the breadboard, and then wire them in bits of a binary number, if there is no carry from the same way. the place to the right. Teams of two build and test their adders, With this exercise, it is possible to convince then connect them to other teams’ adders, students that switches can mimic arithmetic. gradually extending the chain as more teams join They can then be shown a spring-loaded electro- in. There is considerable excitement as they flip magnetic solenoid that moves a plunger back the input switches and see their construction and forth as it is turned on and off. It is easy to adding binary numbers. We then go back to imagine its power leads being connected in place the logic simulator and see how a memory of a light on one of the boards, with the plunger circuit functions before assembling it on the positioned to push a button on another board, breadboards. thereby replacing the student’s eyes and fingers Seeing these different circuits, the students so that the whole thing becomes automatic. are impressed with the number of switches that From here, I tried introducing breadboards are involved, which is part of what gives the with small-scale logic chips, so that they could computer its power and basic character: simple wire up an adder that also accepts a carry from arrangements of switches, replicated many, the right. But it was too great a step to go from many times. We then reflect on the number of doorbell buttons and solenoids to imagining doorbell buttons in each gate and calculate the the equivalent arrangement hidden inside a number of switches that would be present in the black plastic rectangle with protruding wires.

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register memory of a typical 64-bit computer. The also appreciate that computer technology is numbers become staggering. the result of decades of work by many people, Frequently, the experience of calculating building upon others’ efforts, and that it is the number of switches prompts a student amazingly inexpensive, considering what it takes to question how they are actually built. to manufacture it. With some wafers and bare chips, as well If time permits, I have the students program a as some photographic negatives to lend a microcontroller to turn on a light, using assembly concrete support, it is possible to illustrate the language. I give them the code, which is just a photolithography process used in making chips. few lines long, and explain what the instructions While the functioning of transistors is still beyond do. The point is not to learn to program, but to their understanding of electricity, they can see see that when a program moves a binary 1 into how it is possible to form wires in different layers a particular memory location, it is turning on a to interconnect the switches. circuit that illuminates a light, just The process of painting on By the end of tenth- as our doorbell buttons do. This a material, coating it with a grade computer comparison serves to connect the photosensitive layer, exposing science, students very abstract idea of a program to and developing it, then using have the sense the concrete actions of switches. a chemical to dissolve away that nothing in the Also in tenth grade, we unexposed areas is conceptually computer is beyond hold a separate computer skills simple. Hearing about the class in which we look at how to precision and cleanliness involved their understanding distinguish reliable from unreliable helps them to appreciate the effort if they choose to sources of information, as well that goes into making the circuitry devote more time as covering the basics of word in their computers and phones. to studying it. processing, spreadsheets, and As other authors have noted, presentation software. disassembling old computers in tenth grade Much of what is covered in tenth grade seems to be a natural match for this age. Learning depends on the foundation that was built in to use a variety of tools, the students gleefully the ninth grade class. As others have previously attack these formerly expensive machines. As documented, the “what” question can be the components come out, they ask what they addressed by defining the word “computer” are and how they work, which provides many and by demonstrating how binary numbers teachable moments. At the end of this process, meet the polar-reasoning aspect of this stage of I have them sort the pieces on separate tables: development. However, there are deeper aspects one for the processors, another for the memory, to the nature of digital technology that also lend a third for the disk drives and other peripherals, themselves to this kind of reasoning, making and a fourth for the supporting hardware (power it possible to examine more carefully what a supplies, fans, cases, motherboards). Students computer is. are always surprised to see that the actual Before we attempt a definition, we explore processor is a tiny fraction of the whole, and that what computers can and cannot do. The first much of what we think of as a computer is only list tends to be quite lengthy, and it is more there to enable us to interact with it. challenging to find tasks that the computer By the end of tenth-grade computer science, cannot accomplish. Out of the discussion it students have the sense that nothing in the emerges that many of these tasks—having computer is beyond their understanding if they emotions, thinking, reproducing—are essential choose to devote more time to studying it. They qualities of being human, and this insight sets a

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tone for the class: Humans and computers are which then sets the stage for an introduction to very different. Our goal is to experience just how binary arithmetic. In teaching binary arithmetic, different they really are. it should be kept in mind that most students In defining a computer, it can be described will never make practical use of it. Thus, the as being digital, but most students haven’t reason for learning it is to experience how simple considered what that means. For this reason, we it is. The challenge is not to understand the explore the nature of numbers as being concepts operations, but to let go of the mental habits of we represent symbolically so that we can decimal notation. We have to return to the basic communicate them. The computer uses another questions: What are digits? What is counting? representation, which is still not a concept. Only What is addition? humans hold numbers as concepts. With just a little practice, students can see Computers, however, represent a particular that it is possible to change decimal numbers into kind of number, called discrete binary and vice versa. The binary numbers, which need to be Thus, we find the addition table (which has just four distinguished from continuous ultimate polarity entries) is much smaller than the numbers, which is how human between humans decimal table. Tens complement beings can think about them. For and computers: subtraction is also simpler than our phenomena of the world to be We are alive and modern algorithm, although it takes represented in the computer, they some practice to get accustomed need to be divided into discrete they are dead. to it. In binary, it becomes a trivial units that can be measured, extension to addition. The binary weighed, or otherwise converted into discrete multiplication table is also much easier to learn, numbers. Often there may need to be a and multiplication is seen to be another minor preparatory step of converting the phenomena variation of addition. Students thus see that into an electrical analog prior to being split up. computer arithmetic has minimal rules that are For example, variations in air pressure applied mechanically, without thinking. associated with a sound are transformed into In tenth grade, the students implement the an electrical signal by a microphone. The signal addition table using the boards with doorbell is then divided into time units, and its voltage buttons. The emphasis is not on understanding within each unit is measured to produce an the operation of the circuit, but rather on simply integer value within a given range. The image experiencing that a simple set of switches can formed by a lens falls on a material that generates mimic arithmetic. Thus, a computer is seen as a electricity in proportion to the light it receives device built from switches that flip in patterns during the period the camera shutter is open. The that correspond to doing arithmetic, which is material is divided into squares, and the charge in vastly different from how we think. each square is measured to give a corresponding The last remaining piece that defines a integer for that patch of the image. Zooming in on computer is programming. We use the old Bell a digital image always reaches a point where the Labs CARDIAC, a cardboard simulation of a squares are visible, unlike what happens when a computer, to visualize the major components of human takes a closer look at an object. a computer.12 Unlike Setzer’s paper computer,13 As students experience the process of which involves active role-play, the CARDIAC has a digitizing different phenomena, they gain a flowchart and sliding tabs that lead each student deeper sense of how computer representations through the process of fetching and executing differ from human experience. They also see instructions in a program. the significance of numbers in the computer,

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The goal is not to teach students how to Waldorf Journal Project #19, AWSNA, April 2012, program, or how the computer works, but pp.28–32. rather to give them a sense of what it is like 3. Jamie York, “Results from a Survey on Computer Curricula in U.S. Waldorf Schools,” Waldorf Science for a computer to execute a program. It is an Newsletter, Vol. 13, No. 23, Spring 2007, pp.43–59. intentionally tedious and mind-numbing exercise 4. Bryan Whittle (2003). Computing Curriculum in which students see how little is actually done Suggestions for a Waldorf School, Research Institute by each step in the program. Computers are able for Waldorf Education, 32 pp. to do what seems to be so impressive because 5. Valdemar W. Setzer, and Lowell Monke (2001). “An they can carry out billions of these tiny steps alternative view on why, when, and how computers should be used in education,” https://www.ime.usp. each second. The challenge of the exercise is to br/~vwsetzer/comp-in-educ.html. resist the urge to think, and instead to mindlessly 6. David Mitchell and Andrew Linnell, “Thoughts on follow the instructions. This exercise drives home a prototype computer program for Waldorf high the point that computers do not think. schools,” Waldorf Science Newsletter, Vol. 4, No. 7, At the end of the course, students are asked AWSNA, Autumn 1997, pp.14–15. to summarize what a computer is by writing a 7. Thomas Schmidt, “Computer science and computers in the Waldorf school: Suggestions for the technology first-person essay in which they pretend to be a curriculum,” Waldorf Science Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 5, computer explaining itself. They draw upon their AWSNA, Autumn 1996, pp.13–19. understanding of discrete versus continuous, 8. Rudolf Steiner, “Technology and art: Their bearing digitization, binary arithmetic, switches, and on modern culture,” Dornach, Switzerland, Dec. 28, computer operation to creatively describe 1914, GA 275, S-2994. computer existence. Once they have completed 9. Rudolf Steiner, The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness, this assignment, we have a discussion of what it Lecture 4: “The elemental spirits of birth and death,” Dornach, Switzerland, Oct. 6, 1917, S-3405. would be like for a computer to be instructed that 10. Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, it was about to be rebooted and turned back into (XV): “Heavenly history - mythological history - a “normal” computer. earthly history. The mystery of Golgotha,” December Inevitably, the conclusion is that it would be 25, 1924. like awaiting death. Thus, we find the ultimate 11. http://www.cburch.com/logisim/ polarity between humans and computers. We are 12. David Hagelbarger and Saul Fingerman (1968). An Instruction Manual for CARDIAC: A Cardboard alive and they are dead. By ninth grade, students Illustrative Aid to Computation, Bell Telephone have already been exposed to fiction, games, and Laboratories, 1968. marketing in which computers are made to seem 13. Valdemar W. Setzer, “The ‘paper computer’—A lifelike. It is thus important to dispel that notion pedagogical activity for the introduction of basic so they can see them for what they truly are: concepts of computers,” https://www.ime.usp. inventions of the human mind. br/~vwsetzer/paper-comp.html With that as a foundation, computers become objects for study. We can learn how Charles C. (Chip) Weems, PhD, is a professor they work, use them as tools, understand why of Computer Science at the University of they are unreliable or vulnerable to hacking, and Massachusetts, Amherst, and teaches computer eventually explore who we are in the context of science, geology, meteorology, and astronomy a society that depends on them. at Hartsbrook High School, in Hadley MA. He is a member of the Pedagogical Section of the ENDNOTES Anthroposophical Society, a co-author of 28 1. Rudolf Steiner (2004). A Modern Art of Education, introductory computer science textbooks, and has Great Barrington, MA: Anthroposophic Press, p.158. 2. William Steffen, “An Information and Communication led workshops at national AWSNA conferences on Technology Curriculum for Steiner/Waldorf Schools,” technology as it relates to the Waldorf curriculum.

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Harlan Gilbert

ach year brings new and startling examples them. What is the difference between actual and of computers emulating what we think of as artificial intelligence? Eintelligent behavior. For a long time, they have An analogy may help. We know that controlled machines, performed secretarial mousetraps can react to the presence of mice. tasks, and kept track of budgets. More recently, Most people attribute neither a hunting instinct they have begun to beat even the best players at nor a pleasure in the kill, nor an intelligent plan games such as chess and Jeopardy!, to respond— to a mousetrap. It is obvious that its working sometimes even quite reasonably—to enquiries, is purely mechanical. Because mousetraps are and to care for the elderly. In the face of such quite simple mechanisms, it is readily apparent convincing achievements, it is easy to assume that they are endowed with neither intelligence that there must be some form of intelligence nor a feeling life. This case is a useful reminder present and active in the computer. On the other that actions or reactions analogous to those of hand, they are still machines, and what kind of organisms imbued with an inner life in no way intelligence can a machine have? prove the existence of instincts, feelings, or Because we can see the workings of simple intelligence. mechanisms such as mousetraps and grain mills, we are not normally deceived into thinking that The Simulation of Intelligence these are anything but purely mechanical devices. To understand the actual nature of the As technology becomes more sophisticated, phenomenon often referred to as “artificial however, we can no longer observe its workings, intelligence,” it will help to review the origins of nor can non-specialists readily comprehend computing devices. Alan Turing, an early theorist the principles by which highly of these devices, laid down complex electronic devices Because our intelligence principles to which all modern operate. It is therefore easy can no longer follow computers still conform. The to lose sight of their character the workings of the archetypal computer can be as machines. Because our technology that described as a series of digital intelligence can no longer produces the results we states (imagined as a row of follow the workings of the see, it is easy to believe lights, perhaps a very long row, technology that produces the each of which is either on or results we see, it is easy to that these devices show off at any moment) and a linear believe that these devices show signs of intelligence. “tape” of information. This signs of intelligence. Because “information tape” consists they are not simple mechanisms, their nature simply of a series of positions, each of which is simply as mechanism becomes more difficult to either punched or not punched (marked or not discern. marked). With each position that the computer Computers show a range of actions and encounters on the tape, the computer’s state reactions that often lead us to use the term (lights) may change, but only according to certain “artificial intelligence.” It is a short step from pre-determined and fixed rules. The limitation here to go on to ascribe actual intelligence to laid down is that the new state of the computer

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after this encounter (its new pattern of lights) learn to ignore a child trying to fool it with an must be completely determined by the operation imitation mouse on a string, and if a bird flies by of these fixed rules upon the computer’s or a bowl of milk is brought, it will happily turn to current state and the tape position currently the alternative foodstuffs). encountered. After each of these occurrences, In contrast, simulated (“artificial”) intelligence the tape may also be moved forward or backward can only adequately react to any situation one position; this too must be dependent upon foreseen by the developers: “If the yarn runs out, fixed and predetermined rules. stop the machine.” We do not consider a loom Despite some superficial divergences, clever for stopping when there is no more yarn; modern computers still essentially conform to rather, credit goes to its inventor and makers. these original principles. That is to say, every There are, indeed, so-called “learning programs” digital computer operates for computers by means of according to (and We must learn to look which they react increasingly only according to) a sequence of at computers and appropriately through experience mechanical operations defined by know that there is (e.g., handwriting recognition its construction. There can be no no intelligence there, programs that improve their question of attributing any more simply a cleverly accuracy each time they are actual intelligence to any one of made recording of corrected). These are not these highly complex, but still exceptions to the principle of essentially mechanical, reactions intelligence, subject mechanical reaction any more than could be attributed to the to all the limitations than a mechanical device for action of a mechanical loom or of any recording adjusting the loom tension typewriter. and, above all, to on the basis of the already Intelligence presupposes the limitations of its produced weave would be. The the ability to conceive the fashioners. possibilities for recognizing and world in various ways. Aristotle adjusting are actually static, categorized four fundamental aspects of the and truly unpredicted events (e.g., a person world: Everything can be seen to have a purpose writing Chinese, or backwards, or employing in the grand world plan, an originating cause, a an unfamiliar letter—á, ö, ø, π—or putting the form, and a material composition. wrong document into the machine, or the right Intelligence consists partly in having a one upside down) will always show up the precise fluid, playful relationship to these four ways limits of the makers’ forethought. Note well: of conceiving the world. Human intelligence We encounter the makers’ intelligence (and the understands, or can come to understand, limits of their forethought), not the intelligence each of these modes of understandings’ or forethought of the machine; the latter has contributions to the current situation and can neither of these. adjust its relationship to them, both sensibly and Faced with any of the difficulties mentioned creatively—that is, intelligently. Even a cat on in the last sentence but one, a human being the hunt for a mouse will react intelligently to would discover the nature of the problem and unexpected events. It will change its intention if try to find a way to sort it out; a computer can, appropriate (e.g., if a dog appears or the mouse at best (that is, if it even discovers that there doesn’t show). It will modify its technique if is an unexpected “input”), give some form of necessary (e.g., if its hiding place is seen or the response equivalent to: “Unpredicted situation mice change their strategies). It will adapt its encountered. The limit of the technology has conception of form and of substance (e.g., it will been surpassed. Please call an intelligent being.”

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For a human being can learn to read Chinese or The Imprint of Intelligence ask for a translation, to pronounce an unfamiliar This raises quite a few questions. How is letter, and to check if a document is the correct it possible that even a remotely plausible or one and oriented properly. A computer can only momentarily convincing illusion or simulation be re-programmed to do these things. of intelligence can be produced by a mere array A computer cannot formulate any sort of of switching devices? What do we mean by conception of Aristotle’s ways of experiencing intelligence, if this looks like a case of it? Which the world: cause, purpose, form, or substance. aspects of intelligence are present in a computer All that it has are electronic states that we then and which are absent? Finally, what is the choose to interpret as being “about” the world. ultimate limit of the simulation—how far can it The extraordinary range of simulated be taken? intelligence already and soon to A great deal of our thinking be achieved must not, and indeed As they lack all has been systematized over the cannot, fool us. Computers are understanding last centuries. The beginnings of unintelligent machines, and anyone and creativity, this systematization can be traced who works with such devices these devices can back to the fourth century bc, when quickly discovers that the user’s take over only Aristotle formulated rules on how behavior must be made equally processes that to think logically. This gave thinking unintelligent— that is, we must can be translated a direction toward understanding conform precisely to the machine’s the material world and its laws and severely limited schema. Any activity into a series of away from the imaginative, pictorial outside its schema is either ignored automatically thinking that had previously held or promptly leads to unexpected followed steps. sway. By now, having been practiced and normally undesirable results. for two thousand years, Aristotelian A computer is completely unable to become logic has been absorbed into humanity’s aware that it is trapped in a schema of behavior. evolution. Who is unfamiliar with causal logic It is left to the human being to discover this today? Logical thought has accompanied and about it, and then to progressively discover the perhaps even guided the process of incarnation nature, possibilities, and limits of the device’s into our physical brains, allowing us to use their programming. workings as a (perhaps largely unconscious) When a radio plays music, a child may model for the computing devices of the last wonder where the musicians are inside the box. century. As sophisticated adults, we might smile at the Today we are masters of many intellectual question, for we know that the radio contains faculties that were once reserved for a rare no musicians, only a mere reproduction of few not many centuries ago. Reading, writing, music. We must be careful not to do something calculating, and logical analysis were rare similarly childlike when we are faced with accomplishments until the Renaissance, and sophisticated modern computing devices. We the popular revolutions of the 18th century must learn to look at computers and know that brought their impulses into universal intellectual there is no intelligence there, simply a cleverly education. When we speak of this advance in made recording of intelligence, subject to all the universal education, however, we should be limitations of any recording and, above all, to the careful to note that the education of many limitations of its fashioners. skills—spinning, weaving, milking, mowing, and reaping, etc.—was nearly universal in earlier days and has been almost completely replaced by the

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intellectual skills taught in our schools today. a computer. In order to simulate an intellectual There is not necessarily more education today; skill on a computer, this skill must be reduced to instead, we have traded education in practical a series of mechanically executable steps. These and artistic skills for education in intellectual steps must be capable of being translated into attainments. a series of automatic operations on a range of There is good reason for this transformation. electronically simulated zeros and ones (“off”s Over approximately the last five centuries, and “on”s), though this process is often invisible through the increasing consciousness of the to the user. This reduction of intellectual work physical body, it has become possible to create to a series of primitive operations on a series machines that imitate various bodily functions of binary values results in the highly impressive externally. The physical experience of the limbs as achievements of calculation, presentation, and mechanical apparatus has led to the development systematized record keeping with which we are of a wide variety of machinery that works on familiar. analogous mechanical principles: for example, The history of computing is thus in part the digging, hammering, sawing, kneading, weaving, history of the reduction of intelligent activity and sewing. These “limb- to mechanical process. machines” can be driven by After mechanizing practical Important to note here is devices that transform energy and artistic skills, we that the mechanization of into usable power through thinking has often preceded rhythmic action: water are discovering that computerization. It was wheels, electrical motors, and intellectual achievements, because bookkeeping, for steam, diesel, and internal too, are capable of being example, had become a combustion engines. Most mechanized by a computer. rather dull, mechanical recently, devices have been activity that Pascal designed developed which record and process information the first automatic calculator. Tasks have often in order to control machines of the first two become fit for computers (and unfit for human types. The mechanization of practical work and of beings) long before they were given over to the power production has considerably reduced the machines. To a considerable extent, the activity need to educate people in the practical work a of computers frees human beings from dreary, society requires. repetitive intellectual tasks just as we can be Similarly, the reproduction of artistic works freed from wearying, back-breaking, repetitive has considerably diminished the need for artists. mechanical tasks by the practical machinery that A great many small towns used to have their surrounds us. own opera companies and theaters. If you Perhaps it is worth emphasizing one last time, wished to hear music, you had to find a musician. however, that, though a great deal of creative Skilled artisans duplicated great works of art so ability and intelligence is devoted to developing that many people could have a reproduction the machines in our times, these same human hanging in their houses. Today, factory-produced creative abilities and active, penetrative recordings of music and reproductions of art have understanding can never be accessible replaced an entire culture of middle-level artistic to automatic machinery. As they lack all production. understanding and creativity, these devices can After mechanizing practical and artistic take over only processes that can be translated skills, we are beginning to turn our attention to into a series of automatically followed steps. intellectual achievements and discovering that The physical processes of the metabolic- these, too, are capable of being mechanized by limb, rhythmic, and sense-nervous systems are

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accompanied by soul processes. Our limb activity task and hand nature over to “itself” (a self that is directed by an active will; our rhythmic activity it has not yet developed). This view ignores the of the circulation of fluids and of air is interwoven fact that human beings are also natural beings, with feeling; our nervous system is active as the which is to say that in denying a human role in expression of meaningful thought activity. In the nature we deny part of nature itself. The opposite machine, none of these soul qualities is present; tendency is to impose our might and will on the it is as if we had before us a being that is just lower realms of creation without perceiving or limb movement, without direction, or one that respecting their own nature and character. This is purely endless rhythmic circulation, without attitude ignores the interdependence of all life; significance, or one that is purely calculation, to damage nature is to damage the foundation without understanding. Of course, we can employ of our own existence. It is our task to find a these dumb servants for our own purposes, balance between these extremes, by exercising a significance, and understanding. Who is it that we respectful yet active guidance over the realms are employing here, though? Perhaps at times we of nature. will even begin to ask: Who is serving whom? A responsible attitude towards nature requires increasing consciousness of the The Role of Artificial Intelligence in natural world’s diversity, rhythms, and Earth’s Evolution interdependencies: in short, its ecology. Unless Humanity is becoming increasingly we respect, preserve, and enhance these, responsible for guiding the evolution of the treating them as if nature’s beings were our own earth. We already have great power to shape children, we shall lose the right and the capacity the inorganic world: to build with stone, tunnel to live in a natural world. Our own health and under mountains, and create new metals. Huge balance depend upon our maintaining a caring regions of the earth have been settled and given relationship towards the beings of nature. a physical formation completely Humanity’s capacity to be determined by human influence: Our own health and true cultivators of the earth flattened, tarred streets and balance depend upon remains modest. Thousands of concrete sidewalks connecting our maintaining a years—epochs and eons—of brick, stone, and wood buildings. caring relationship work and research lie ahead The plant and animal realms are towards the beings of before we shall be able to do full also coming to an ever-greater justice to the realms of nature extent under human influence nature. subject to our influence. To and control. Given the alarming understand the full magnitude of rate of human-induced loss of species, on the one the task, it may be helpful to recall how spiritual hand, and the rapid increase in human-produced beings once played a role in establishing the hybrid and gene-modified organisms, on the original physical basis for our own entry into other, it is fair to say that life on this planet is evolution on the physical plane. becoming increasingly dependent upon human Our responsibility for the evolution on direction for its evolution. We are becoming the earth of new beings is analogous to what was lords of all creation. once done for us. According to Rudolf Steiner’s To care for the natural world is a valid and description, in the diffuse sphere of warmth extremely important part of our task on earth, available as a medium at the moment when but one that comes with great responsibility. The the basis for our own physical bodies was laid difficulty here is to keep the balance between two down, beings of evolution three stages ahead of extremes. One extreme is the wish to deny this the human being established forms that would

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serve as the basis for the evolution of the human shaping mineral substance—crystals (usually of physical body. Now, having evolved life forces, silicon) and conductive metals—into incredibly a psychology, and self-consciousness, we are complex and finely fashioned patterns of coming to be responsible for the evolution of electronic circuitry. These transformations of the other beings, even for helping to form physical mineral realm are an expression of something bodies from which new evolutions may develop. fundamentally different from exquisite works In our work with the mineral realm, three levels of architecture. Architectural works are always of existence below our own evolution, humanity a combination of the practical will, aesthetic has an analogous task to the role of the Spirits feeling, and the insightful mind—elements the of Personality in the formation Roman architect Vitruvius called of our own physical body. The We are now using structure, beauty, and function. mineral world is today in the intelligence to fashion The design of computer circuits state of development that human the mineral world is usually not much influenced beings were once in their earliest into many forms and by aesthetic considerations and stage of unfolding. We now have structures, and either its intended functions no longer the task of taking the material permeating these include the full range of human substance of the earth and giving with a harmonizing life. Computer circuitry is purely it new forms, into which new aesthetic and determined by the rational beings waiting to incarnate have higher purpose—or intellect’s logic working at the chance to enter the stream refinement and complexity, but of evolution. neglecting them. also at a merciless absoluteness This process can take various of principle previously unknown directions. We can picture, for instance, the in world evolution. An automobile engine, awesome transformation involved in reshaping otherwise a triumph of modern precision masses of incoherent rock into the magnificence engineering, is but a child’s toy, in comparison. of a Chartres Cathedral. According to Steiner, What beings will find a path to incarnation during the phase of earth’s evolution that will through these formations, both now and in follow our own, a work such as Chartres will arise future planetary phases? Following Steiner, I in metamorphosed form. Such artistic creations have suggested that the wondrously complex will appear in a next cycle of evolution as flowers harmony of Chartres can be imagined as being appear during our phase of evolution, that is, transformed in a future evolutionary phase into a equipped with life forces and capable of growth flower having all the lovely, wonderfully complex and decay, though with a mineral body. New harmony of the cathedral, yet being equipped life forces capable of enlivening a body of stone with life—a mineral form, in other words, capable will permeate their transformed existence. I of growth and decay. When we come to the visualize magnificent flower-like organisms with integrated chip, the computer, I imagine a living, crystalline blossoms, a more stone-like leaf and growing being with the laws of these devices as stem region and then truly stony roots. Imagine its basis: a one-sided, virtually parasitic virus of such a transformation of Chartres Cathedral, the future earth. Incapable of existence except the Parthenon, Hagia Sophia, or the first by feeding on beings of more well-rounded Goetheanum. capacities, these will have only one purpose: Other physical structures that human to reproduce themselves and extend their beings have created will also provide paths of crystalline maze of logic over all of the earth. incarnation for beings. In particular, let us turn The universe we live in was formed out of to computers. Computers are fashioned by wisdom, through the logos. The microcosmic

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correspondence to this cosmic wisdom is intellect, not least in order that humanity is freed our human intelligence, which has evolved to move forward beyond this state, to remount through the successive stages described above the steps of intelligence’s fall through our own until it has reached the level of understanding conscious and purposeful activity. How we shape applicable to the physical world. Because human these beings’ physical form is of vital importance intelligence is an image of cosmic wisdom, human to how this task will be carried forward. understanding can comprehend the universe’s Machines can be created and used in a way laws, rhythms, and workings. We are now using that leads us further down the path toward this intelligence to fashion the mineral world into the mechanization of our own intelligence or many forms and structures, and they can be used to free our while doing so either permeating Machines can lead intelligence from a focus on these with a harmonizing aesthetic us further down the mechanical tasks so that it can and higher purpose—or neglecting path towards the find its way back to its cosmic them. mechanization of inheritance. We are imprinting But our universe was not our own intelligence, our intellectual achievements meant to be—and has not or they can free our upon the lowest realm remained—solely an expression intelligence from a accessible to us, the mineral of wisdom. The principles of focus on mechanical world. But in doing so we face freedom and love have entered tasks so that it the danger of being confronted into human—and thus also into everywhere by the outer form, the world’s—evolution. Through can find its way the hardened shell, the husk of us, the kingdoms of nature can back to its cosmic intellect in the very world we become imbued with love. We can inheritance. fashion for ourselves. Only if we shape the mineral world into forms truly understand what we are literally built out of love, not simply dictated by doing here will we find the proper place for this the intellect or the will to power. The plant world, synthetic intellect and preserve a space for the if cultivated with love, will evolve in different human qualities of engaged will, active love, and directions than it will if we impose a mineralized, living intelligence. rationalized farming upon it. The animal world, Artificial intelligence, as we meet it in nurtured with love, will find through us new computers, confronts us with two challenges. possibilities of evolution that will be supportive One is that human intelligence will fall under the of and in harmony with humanity’s activities and spell of mechanization rather than guiding it. needs. Creators of mechanized technologies often fail The principles of love and freedom must to comprehend the effect of these technologies enter into all of our life and deeds—and upon the human life of soul and spirit, including especially into our formative activity with nature. their own. At the other end of the spectrum, The critical question accompanying the evolution those who may be most concerned with this of artificial intelligence, then, is this: How do we effect are often unable to fully understand imbue these constructions with the new principle the technology itself. To bring an increased of love? Is this even possible? The electronic comprehension of both the technology and mechanisms we make will certainly carry over the soul and spirit realities that underlie our into future generations the outer image of the relationship to it is our first challenge. workings of earthly intelligence, of the intellect. The second challenge is this: Even if human This is surely part of their task: to carry out for beings preserve a healthy soul life despite their human beings the repetitive functions of earthly increasing contact with computers, how are we

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 32 • Computers and Intelligence to relate to the beings that are incarnating into Conclusion the world through this technology? In a sense I opened this essay with the question: What there is one being who underlies all computer intelligence do computers exhibit? I then sought technology, incarnating in a manifold of individual to justify the following response: A computer devices. What vessels for incarnation are we presents us with a dead image of intelligence, creating? Here is a task that we will carry forth a reflection in a mirror that human beings have over eons of world evolution: both to care for the erected. Artificial intelligence is an empty form, world into which we are introducing a new and a barren shell; it is intelligence’s shadow, without in many ways potentially detrimental element, intelligence’s light. while at the same time caring for the future Looking at our creation, we see our own development of this being in its many guises. reflection, our own intelligence, in the polished Love is active knowledge, and without real mirror we have made, and we may almost see the understanding there can be no love. If we can reflection before us to be itself imbued with life, awaken in ourselves a real understanding of the with its own intelligence. We can breathe life into nature of the beings we are working with here this mirror for moments, but as soon as a human and of their mission, and if we can face these being steps away from the devices, they return beings not just with understanding, but also with to being empty mechanisms. Computers may real compassion for their nature and mission, present the outward form of intelligence but they then we will be able to find ways to redeem lack its inner reality. them. If those who create new forms in this realm become capable of real understanding, knowledge, and perception of what it is that Harlan Gilbert’s first career was as a computer they are creating, and in the face of this develop programmer. Currently a teacher of math, this love and compassion, then we will be able computer science, astronomy, and philosophy to look forward to the future with a degree of at Green Meadow Waldorf High School as confidence. well as a part-time lecturer in various teacher Beings of pure logic will be with us in the training programs, he has a Masters in Waldorf future. They will incarnate into the forms that Education from Sunbridge College and a PhD we are making available for them. But human in Transformative Studies from the California love and the will to redeem these beings through Institute of Transformative Studies. the forces and insight developed out of an unsentimental recognition of and compassion for them may also be there in sufficient force. Upon this depends our future—and not ours alone. The whole earth’s evolution depends upon our insightful love and compassionate will.

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 Technology and the Laws of Thought Part 2

Gopi Krishna Vijaya

The Laws of Thought My husband told me that when he was a lad of seventeen a thought struck him suddenly, No matter how correct a mathematical which became the foundation of all his future theorem may appear to be, one ought never discoveries. It was a flash of psychological to be satisfied that there was not something insight into the conditions under which a mind imperfect about it until it also gives the most readily accumulates knowledge [...] For a impression of being beautiful. few years he supposed himself to be convinced – George Boole of the truth of the Bible as a whole, and even intended to take orders as a clergyman of the English Church. But by the help of a learned he dawn of the 19th century saw a rapid Jew in Lincoln, he found out the true nature development of natural science, leading to the of the discovery which had dawned on him. rise of new ideas in physics and mathematics. T This was that man’s mind works by means of Industries were in full swing, laws of electricity some mechanism which functions normally and magnetism began to be investigated (by towards Monism. (M.E. Boole, Indian Thought the likes of Faraday, Volta, and Ampere), and and Western Science in the Nineteenth Century, non-Euclidean geometry was developed by 1931) many mathematicians, including the “Prince of Mathematics,” Carl Gauss. Devotion to The inspiration for inner effort is once more architecture of buildings was now transferred seen to originate in the sphere of religion, either to technology or to a study of the as borne out by Boole’s deep interest in all architecture of the human religions and his desire to body, leading to large strides work in the cause of “pure in anatomy and physiology. religion.” Studying his life and Cell theory took shape, and conceptual development must the possibility of different hence necessarily include the functions of the body being logical precision, the aesthetic localized in different parts sense, as well as religious of the brain began to be devotion simultaneously, as it investigated. existed in the individual. This It was precisely in the is not usually done today, and midst of this environment that there is a recurring tendency to George Boole (1815–1864) pick and choose. Only one part lived, and his life shows the of the story is valued and the indications of the struggle rest discarded as being irrelevant (quite against between the different aspects of the thinking the spirit of scientific investigation): process. Deeply religious by nature, Boole had a mystical experience in 1833, later described by The father of pure mathematics, as Bertrand his wife, Mary Everest Boole: Russell would later refer to Boole, had not

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been purely interested in mathematics, nor interrelationship of concepts or propositions, was his mathematics free of the “impurities” which were then differentiated. Qualifiers such of extradisciplinary concerns, in particular, as “all objects,” “some objects,” and “no objects” religious ones. The symbolic logic that is now were referred to as subjects, while their qualities, the essential tool for secular philosophers e.g., “round,” “white,” etc., are called predicates. and that forms the basis for dispassionate The verb forms the link or copula. The copula computers began in the mind of a warm- was seen as a logical connecting link, and it blooded, religiously concerned idealist. (Dan is normally a verb. In other words, the bridge Cohen, Equations from God, Ch. 3, 2007) between the subject and predicate involved either an existence (is) or lack of existence (is not). In other words, the assumption is made that Together, different kinds of propositions were mathematics is “disciplinary” and everything else created, such as: is necessarily a separate box or an “impurity.” This assumption is one of the primary reasons All diamonds are solid. why this aspect of Boole’s life and work is hardly Some stones are soft. known or even realized today, making it a fact Some pebbles are not black. worthy of mention. No rocks are liquid. As already described in Part 1 of this series (Research Bulletin 21-2, Autumn/Winter 2016), Logical propositions were studied, discussed, Bacon pioneered the use of binary to represent debated and elaborated by the Greeks of the letters and language. Leibniz developed the same period, the Arabs of the 7th–10th centuries, use of binary numbers in mathematics and and the Scholastics of the 13th century. Thus, suggested their use in calculating machines; he the works of Aristotle on logic have had an also suggested that logic might be represented immense role in the development of further mathematically. Boole took the first steps to thought for nearly two millennia. Nevertheless, accomplish that by trying to represent thought the development of a logical train of thought and logic itself in a binary form. Language, itself was not altered, and everything was still Mathematics, and Logic—these were the expressible in terms of basic syllogisms such as domains that could now be represented in a this one: binary form, as a work of the Philosophers. It is clear that there are a finite number of letters All diamonds are solid. in the alphabet, and a finite representation of Kohinoor is a diamond. numbers. Thus, letters and numbers can be ∴ Kohinoor is solid. represented in binary, a feat which does not alter the very content of thought itself. For instance, I This is essentially the crux of the can express a number in any base, and I can also development of logic, and is also called a write a certain word in any script. The form of the syllogism or deduction. A logical deduction was letter is not crucial to understanding the meaning therefore at the root of all philosophy for many of the communication. However, with Boole, the centuries, as workers in this field strove to build notion of “meaning” and logical thinking itself is thought itself and also the relationship between expressed in the form of binary algebra, which man and the world. Rules were derived for has to be analyzed further. these logical deductions and for determining Boole considered his work a natural validity and invalidity of propositions. The laws of extension of the works of Aristotle. Prior to thought according to this system are: Boole’s analyses, logic was developed as an

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A is A a shape is either a triangle or not a triangle: Law of Identity: A concept is equal to itself. The same spatial experience could not take two separate forms at the same time. A triangle as a A is not (not A) concept remained something static and did not Law of non-contradiction: A concept is not the change with time, giving an assurance of a firm same as its opposite. foundation for thinking. This clarity of thought in geometry guided the early development of logic All A is either A or is not A as well, resulting in a twofold copula: is or is not. Law of excluded middle: A concept is either true The origin of the copula can be indicated as: or false. School of Athens => These were followed quite strictly by medieval Geometry => logicians. For example, Avicenna (10th century) Copula: is/is not. is said to have declared that: “Anyone who denies the law of non-contradiction should be Similarly, it can be observed that there are beaten and burned until he admits that to be quantifiers in the statements: all, some, and beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, none. Here, it is a matter of encompassing the and to be burned is not the same as not to be element through number, which is necessarily burned.” A dry sense of humor indeed, but it is what our notions of quantity are tied to. hard to imagine today how central these debates Whether or not an actual count is performed, were to the intellectual life of the time, when all is necessarily more encompassing than some, the ideas one held to be true had life-or-death and some is more encompassing than none. The repercussions. origin of these relationships can be traced to the It can be seen in the form of the copula that domain of arithmetic, or the positive real line. the laws of logic denote static situations, i.e., This was the development that had its roots in either something is or is not. There is no other musical ratios and numbers. It is important to possibility. It is interesting to probe the origins of keep in mind that it is the form of the quantifier these statements in logic and ask why the Greeks itself that is of interest here, and not the concept posed a statement in that particular fashion. that it is referring to. For example, consider: Because the experience of one era determines the concepts woven out in the following period, All ideas are wonderful. the natural question to ask is: What motivated It is not important whether or not the ideas the laws of thought? What was the experience on are quantities, but that the notion of all itself is which these laws were based? derived from the notion of a quantity. Quantities A study of the thought life and pursuit of owe their origin to arithmetic. The origin of Truth of the ancient Greeks shows that geometry the laws of arithmetic can be traced back to was revered, as was music (Harmony of the a much earlier School: the Pythagorean. The Spheres). It was understood that in geometry Pythagoreans revered numbers above all as the man could really grasp the structure of the world guiding principles of the Universe, and their ideas and man’s place within it. This is indicated by the had taken strong root by the time of Plato and Platonic saying “God geometrizes” which was the School of Athens. Geometry was also seen said to be written at the entrance of his School as being derived from arithmetic, paralleling of Athens. In fact, Aristotle was a student of this their natural developments in the Schools of school himself, and geometry formed the soil Pythagoras and Plato. Hence, the derivation of for the seeds of logic to be sown. For example, logical terms is:

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School of Pythagoras => The Stoics were more interested in the utility Arithmetic => of the laws of thought to living a moral life than in Quantifier: all/some/none deriving implications of the laws themselves. This meant that they focused on the class alone, and School of Athens => developed consequences. Naturally, Aristotelian Geometry => logic involved these derivations of consequences, Copula: is/is not but they were not studied exclusively as done by the Stoics. It is therefore from the Stoics that It is well known that the Greeks were quite sentences of this form are derived: skilled in the development of both, and it comes as no surprise that logic owes its origins and If A then B internal structure to ideas from geometry and Not both A and B arithmetic. There is yet another aspect of this logic that This is perfectly suited not only to develop has to be addressed. This is the subject and consequences, but to determine actions. A and predicate, which can be called class in general. B can thus denote actions, in addition to ideas Conventional understanding simply takes class as or objects. It also rests on a condition “if,” which “collection of objects” or a sack of goods, plainly separates the true from the false, the “is” from speaking. However, meanings for the same words the “is not.” Since A and B can denote actions, can be quite different in different periods (an the following statement is also possible. early example is perspective drawing). Hence, this does not take into account that in the Greek If A then do B. era, even ideas were treated as real “objects.” This then adds to the list of copulas, in a different Indeed, Plato’s philosophical work involved the form—not only can B exist or not exist, be true notion that true reality consists of ideas. In stark or false, but it can also be done. It is particularly opposition to Plato, the Stoics of a later era well suited to applications. The updated summary considered the entire world including ideas as becomes: being corporeal, or physical. This also mirrored the different motivations of Platonists and Stoics: Quantifiers: Arithmetic Platonists were concerned with concepts from Copulas: Geometry (is/is not), Actions (do) the ideal world (metaphysical realities), while Class: Concepts (physical/metaphysical) the Stoics focused on actual application within a deterministic physical world. This brings the discussion from the realm of the These polar opposites must be taken into Philosopher back to the realm of the Craftsman, account, as they are central to the operations and it is worthwhile to see that the logic of the of logic that developed later. If the name of a Greeks had its renaissance only in the 19th class of object or ideas is called “concept,” the century: the age of the Engineer/Scientist. In summary of Aristotelian logical forms can be this era, Boole developed a logic that expressed written as: only one particular form of the four Aristotelian copulas, viz., equality, represented by equations. Quantifiers: Arithmetic The four statements of the Greeks are reduced to Copulas: Geometry one expression relating to concepts. Class: Concepts (objects/ideas) All diamonds are solid. 1 Some stones are soft. 2

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Some pebbles are not black. 3 Boole wanted to extend logic, a natural way No rocks are liquid. 4 forward would have been to study different => Coal = Black copulas, which do not make sense in Aristotelian formulation. For example, compare these two Since equations with variables are nothing sets of statements: but the formulation of algebra, for the first time logic is expressed through algebra, a branch of All men are mortal. All children like candy. mathematics. Logic gets mathematized for the Socrates is a man. The cat likes children. first time. This conversion of logical copulas to => Socrates is mortal. =>The cat likes candy. equality has been addressed in recent works: The second syllogism on the right is not Where Aristotle saw predications, Boole saw necessarily valid in real life, and it indicates that equations. Boole realized that his theory a different domain opens up when a different of logical form was in radical opposition to copula is used. Hence, a new form of logic can be Aristotle’s, but he seems to have thought that determined for likes and does not like just as it Aristotle had just not gone deep enough, not was built up for is and is not. Instead, the set of that Aristotle was fundamentally mistaken. copulas is reduced to just is by Boole. Boole’s pattern was S–is–P, Subject–is– This alteration had other effects as well. With Predicate, or S=P, Subject equals Predicate. the nature of the copula altered, the subjects, (Corcoran, THPL 24 p.261, 2003) predicates and quantifiers changed. Boole reduced the quantifiers all, some, and none to This conversion of four possible expressions just two: all (1) and none (0). Also the quantity, into the single expression of equality had its which stood by itself in the traditional system, consequences: What was immediate for Aristotle was now inserted with the class. This means that required mediation for Boole. Again, Aristotelian one no longer had all diamonds but instead just simplicity becomes Boolean complexity. For a single all-diamonds, which became the same as example, Aristotle would go from the two just diamonds because all = 1. Similarly, instead premises “Every square is a rectangle” and of saying “no diamonds” one had to say “no all- “Every rectangle is a polygon” immediately—in diamonds.” The quantifier gets attached to the one step—to the conclusion “Every square is class itself. Hence, just as the ancients had to a polygon.” Boole broke this down into eight create a number to represent zero, for the first tediously meticulous equational steps. The first time a newclass or object also had to be created step is going from the second premise, “Every for the purpose of saying “nothing.” Nothing rectangle is a polygon” to an intermediate becomes a class of objects! For example, the conclusion arrived at by something analogous standard logical statement transforms like this: to multiplying equals by equals, namely “Every square that is a rectangle is a square that is No A is B. a polygon,” “multiplying” both sides of the ∴ (No A) is (B). equation by “square.” (Corcoran, ibid.) ∴ (All A) and (All B) is (nothing). In other words, conversion of all the ∴ A.B = 0 copulas into a single one (is or equals) made This is a phenomenal transformation, as the the representation of statements cumbersome. variable “zero” or “nothing” has literally been If only equality is included as a copula, there is created ex nihilo to fill in the function of is not. naturally no inequality that can be expressed, Because the copula is no longer available, the leading to the complications just quoted. If object itself must have “nothing.”

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These laws developed by Boole were Reductions of logical statements into complemented and enlarged by Gottlob mathematical expressions make them well suited Frege (1848–1925). Like the Stoics before to include both calculations and the rules of him, Frege concentrated on creating a system calculations into the mechanism of a device. Sure where all logical statements can be expressed enough, this generated the possibility of replacing symbolically, and also applied. Hence, he the will element of thinking and to outsource it to elaborated propositional logic in a mathematical the machines: form, making it possible not only to express equations mathematically, but also to include With earlier sorts of logic, to determine the application using propositional statements whether the validity of an argument had (if… then, and, or, etc.). This enabled logic to be been proved, we still needed to understand expressed as a mechanism, an action. What Boole the meanings of words—at least some of the did for Aristotle, Frege accomplished for the words—and this meant we still need to think. Stoics, and the works of these two thinkers and With symbolic logic, by contrast, we don’t their contemporaries (such as C.S. Peirce) form need to think at all, or rather the only thing we the basis of what is known as Boolean algebra need to think about is whether the symbols today. appear in the order specified by the rules that If all the quantifiers of traditional logic had govern them. In consequence, so long as the been included, it would never have been possible proof is sufficiently spelled out in a symbolic to indicate it by a machine, because of the language, the task of verifying it is strictly quantifier ALL. As hinted earlier, these quantifiers clerical. What we look at is simply a matter of bear a direct resemblance to arithmetic, form—and purely form. … In this respect, then, represented like this: determining whether an argument’s validity has been proved within the system is strictly NONE 0 mechanical, and, in our age, it can certainly SOME 1 be done by machines. (Shenefelt and White, ALL ∞ If A then B, How Logic Shaped the World, p.252, 2013) No mechanism can generate infinity, so that had to be removed. The meaning of ALL is shifted Thus, “formal” logic served to reduce the onto “1,” giving: necessity for thought and to increase the mechanization of concepts. NONE 0 At this point, it is worth asking: Was this ALL 1 “mathematization” necessary? In other words, what prior reason could one have to insist The quantifier SOME is no longer required: that logic has to be mathematical and, more It is simply absorbed in the class name itself. specifically, algebraic? What is the reasoning that Therefore, both the names of classes (subject/ motivated this logical development? A study of predicate) as well as the copula (is not) become Boole’s works gives a surprising answer to this: quantified. This conversion of all logical statements into algebraic form is thus seen to Whence it is that the ultimate laws of Logic remove everything that could not be quantified are mathematical in their form; why they or mechanized and retain only that which could. are, except in a single point, identical with It is not an extension, as Boole believed, but a the general laws of Number; and why in that reduction, a filtration. particular point they differ;—are questions

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upon which it might not be very remote from Mathematics is logical. But now, since presumption to endeavor to pronounce a logic and algebra were combined as symbolic positive judgment. Probably they lie beyond logic, this form of logic had an effect in turn the reach of our limited faculties. (Boole, Laws on mathematics itself. Hence, mathematics of Thought, Ch.1) itself is changed and seen differently. Because mathematics is at the core of science, this Thus, there is no specific reason for impacted all of natural science. insisting that logical rules have to correspond to mathematics, other than the general feeling of Numbers and Neurons confidence that thinkers have in the methods of mathematics (perhaps due to the great success of the Industrial Revolution) as exemplified by Boole. It is a claim and not a deduction from previous circumstances nor a solution to a specific problem. This fact is important to highlight as it shows that the factors motivating the creation of mathematical logic were neither mathematics nor logic. Boolean algebra connected logic to algebra, in the process significantly altering the form of logic as it was practiced for centuries. Several features of logic were extended, but only in terms of their algebraic representations (logical gates such as AND, OR, NOT, etc.) At the same Music is the pleasure the human mind time, quantifiers are reduced from three to two, experiences from counting without being copulas are reduced from two to one, and new aware that it is counting. categories of “everything” (1) and “nothing” (0) – Gottfried Leibniz are introduced as classes. Language and verbal influences are removed entirely and replaced So far, the transformations occurring in by abstract symbols. Thus, while the theory logic and their relationship to mathematics itself was generated due to the religious will- have been described. In particular, the key temperament of its creator, the effect of it was changes that occurred with Boolean algebra to create mechanical (will) equivalents of logical have been indicated, viz., the transformation statements. Religious will inspired mechanical of the quantifier “all” from infinity to one, the will. removal of the copula “is not,” and the addition Traditional logic was guided by geometry of the concept “nothing” into the predicate or and arithmetic, which were in turn guided by class name. Frege’s work helped to make this experience. Replacing this by an “algebra” of logic practical by retaining the copula “do” and logic removes those restrictions of experience, expressing a logical statement as a sequence giving it a free reign in terms of equations and of abstract operations. That which earlier combinations. Hence, Boolean algebra appears required a knowledge of language, and hence to show an extension of logic, even though it an evaluation of meaning, was converted into an is a reduction of it to include only a subset of automatic operation. In addition, the sequence of mathematical concepts. development of logic was now reversed:

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Mathematics and Arithmetic => consequence, easier to repeat. Compare this to Geometrical understanding => the effort involved in lifting, say, a heavy rock. Logic of Ancient Greek (ca 200 bc) The first time, there is a large effort involved. After several repetitions, involving perhaps Logic of Ancient Greek => weeks, months or even years of experience, Algebraic expressions => it gets easier to lift. In the process, both the Mechanical operations (ca 1900 ad) bones and the muscles are strengthened. Thus, mental effort appears to be a greatly accelerated In other words, instead of deriving logic from analog of physical effort. Both have the quality mathematical understanding, it was equated that, with repetition, inner strength increases to a specific mathematical domain. This logic, so as eventually to match the resistance. Once called symbolic logic, now became identical with the strengths are matched, the task becomes mathematics. It is but natural to go one step easier and, in the end, becomes mechanical. further, and that is precisely what happened: Thus, mechanical process is seen to be the very A new mathematics was derived from symbolic minimal residual form of inner effort. logic. Development of mathematics hence came Secondly, after receiving the problem of a full circle, from mathematics generating logic to cone, assume that you are given a problem in symbolic logic generating formal mathematics. properties of prime numbers. Naturally, this would refresh the will-element once again. Mathematics => After solving this second problem, suppose you Greek Logic => declare that it took the same amount of effort to Algebraic Logic => solve this problem as it took to solve the one on Formal Mathematics (200 bc to 1900 ad) surface area. Nevertheless, doing the problem of surface area again would not involve the same As indicated earlier, while engaging the effort, but doing a new problem requires roughly thinking process, there is a direct perception of the same effort. This clarifies the process some a force, or will element, in the effort needed to more: Novelty is the key criterion that demands form a thought. Without this will element, there effort each time, while identical repetition is no difference in thinking about something for reduces effort over time. Therefore, in terms the first time and thinking about something that of the thinking process as a whole, including has already been thought about. It has also been these willing and feeling aspects, the capacity to indicated that only the repetitive aspect of this understand involves the capacity to generate new force can be directed to a machine. An example ideas, as opposed to repeating existing ideas. This can be used to study this process in some more freshness of thinking is developed when trying to detail. understand topics that are as different from each Assume that you are asked to derive the other as possible or when generating new ideas surface area of a cone for the first time. The first for the same topic. struggle will probably be the hardest, as you Hence, a healthy thought process necessarily wend your way using calculus to determine the involves creating new ideas. But what is the right formula. Now, if the same question is given result of ideas being restricted to those that are again, and you are asked to demonstrate to a logical, algebraic, and, hence, mechanical? The third party, the derivation flows more smoothly, natural consequence of that restriction is that and the effort involved is significantly less. After a ideas themselves are seen as being mechanisms! few repetitions, there is minimal effort involved, In a direct inheritance of Stoic philosophy, and the process becomes automatic and, as a whose assumption was that the whole world is

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corporeal, thoughts are seen as mechanisms. Here it is easy to observe how the cause and effect are inverted. The idea of mechanism is one arrived at through many centuries of effort of both Craftsmen and Philosophers, and now it is claimed that thought is a mechanism. It is easy to see how one gets into a knot when pursuing the topic like this, when one asks, “What is a mechanism?” Answering this would require thinking once more, looping back to square one. This is reminiscent of the old joke:

What is mind? Does it matter? What is matter? Oh, never mind!

An illustration of the fact that mechanism is not the same as understanding a concept Translator in the room, with his translator (Illustration is shown by the “Chinese Room Argument,” courtesy: David L. Anderson, CCSI) described by John Searle in 1980. In this argument, a person who has does sets of fallen dominoes) can be made to stand not know the Chinese language is kept in an again by pressing a lever outside the room, or enclosed room and asked to read off a certain set by a falling domino inside the room. In this case, of characters on the input screen. He is given a the “rules” are formed by the pattern in which big, fat rule book, containing all the rules about the dominoes fall. By connecting each Chinese what the output is for any specific input character character to a specific set of dominoes, which set. It is possible for this Translator to generate a either fall or do not fall, it is possible to generate response for any string of shapes, and, except for a response at the output that once more the fact that it would take him a while to provide corresponds to a specific character. As anyone the response, it would be indistinguishable who has arranged dominoes for entertainment from someone who knows Chinese. Yet, in spite knows, kicking a domino can hardly be called of the fact that he performs accurate pattern “thinking.” recognition, the Translator knows no Chinese and Whether it is with dominoes or with gears does not understand what any word means at the and levers, the nature of mechanism is clearly end of the day. Meaning is completely missing, seen as something that is necessarily as the pattern is not the meaning. This method of functioning is also seen historically with the first major computing machines: looms that wove patterns of cloth. This is a direct result of the application of Frege’s rules for generating symbolic logic, which can be executed mechanically. As a matter of fact, instead of keeping an actual person inside the box, it is possible to replace it with an elaborate pattern of dominoes. All that would be required for repeated operation is that a fallen domino (or (Courtesy: Matt Parker’s Domino demo)

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deterministic and finite. The placement of the form of Geometry, parallel lines do meet—at a thinking process is also not clearly identified in point at infinity. the case of a mechanical device. Normally it is Frege was strictly against the replacing of taken for granted that the machine helps to think the axioms of Euclid and, instead, added more once it is set into operation. This idea was axioms to make the system stricter. He declared suggested earlier, that the repetitive element of that “no man can serve two masters,” i.e., either thinking might be outsourced to the machine. In Euclidean or non-Euclidean systems were true reality, the situation is exactly reverse: Thinking is (On Euclidean Geometry, p.251, 1997.) Since involved only in setting up the “rules” of the the assumptions taken to be “self-evident operation or in preparing the rule book or the truths” were no longer valid, the reaction was to domino arrangement—and­ it stops the moment abandon the idea and focus on setting up a set the machine is set in motion. Whether one sees of abstract axioms, whose consequences were dominos falling, gears churning, or electricity explored. firing, the process is identical in essence. It is just Around the same time of Frege’s work like kicking a stone downhill and watching its (1879), irrational numbers were clearly defined progress according to gravity. Hence, the basic by Richard Dedekind (1872), while Georg Cantor process underlying computation is mechanism explored the fact that there are an infinite and not thought. number of possible infinities (1874). However, Another consequence of this restriction of the mathematization of logic was restricted to the logical form to mechanism, especially with the Euclidean domain, giving rise to analog machines. copula and quantifiers, is the effect on the notion Moreover, only whole numbers (zero and of infinity. As already pointed out, geometry positive integers) could be represented in binary motivated the copula, and arithmetic motivated code, which led the way to digital machines. the quantifiers in Greek logic. However, several These were two immediate consequences of changes occurred in these subjects toward the the rejection of both projective geometry and middle of the 19th century, simultaneous with infinity–a fact that will be described more in the the works of Boole. Just a year prior to Boole’s next chapter. Laws of Thought, William Hamilton discovered While infinity is not accessible to the algebra of quaternions (with one real and mathematical representation, one can still three complex quantities). express it as a concept, as it is done in this very This topic was added to the already existent sentence. Hence, the logical domain extends serious debates among mathematicians as to beyond that of finite numbers. It is necessary the nature of numbers, particularly negative and to see that logic is also not restricted by the use complex numbers, which could not be grasped of copulas is and is not. This opens the door to intuitively. Hence, as algebra was undergoing include non-mathematical ideas (or at least, the a massive change, geometry was also being non-Euclidean) into logical form and to alter the revamped from the ground up: The Euclidean form of analyzing the possibilities in a situation. system that had stood for two millennia, just like Hence, thinking has a range that intrinsically logic, was called into question. The postulate that exceeds that of mathematics and mechanics. states that parallel lines never meet was found This fact is mostly overlooked by most to be unnecessary for a consistent geometry, comparisons of the mind and the machine. throwing open the door to Non-Euclidean Consider one of the typical examples used for Geometry and Synthetic Geometry (also called estimating the power of mind and machine: a Projective Geometry) that began to be developed game of chess. This game has highlighted the as generalizations of Euclidean Geometry. In this epitome of intellectual capacity for several

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this case, one can easily see that the calculations are quite impossible to do, simply because there is infinity of rules to choose from. Just as young children make up rules and change them as they play along, rules can always be altered. This option opens the door to the full range of human mental capacities to act and removes the barrier that existed for the “rules of the game.” It does not matter if there are 64 squares and 32 pieces McGonagall’s giant chess set or 64 squares and 31 pieces—an infinite number of games is possible if the rules can be changed. centuries. It is possibly one of the few games As Georg Cantor rightly pointed out, there are an today that is simple and yet represents so well infinite number of infinite numbers. Regardless of strategy, combinatorics, even elegance and the number of squares or pieces, “the sky is the intuition. limit.” Traditionally, in order to investigate whether With just 26 letters of the alphabet, the or not the machine can compete with the English language has been growing and continues human mind, the number of possible moves is to grow with every added speaker. Countless calculated and probabilities weighed in order to numbers of books have been written, poems determine outcomes. Orderly to begin with, a composed, reports described, with no end in rough estimate of possible games that can ever sight. With a few notes of the musical scale, be played on the chessboard rises astronomically music is still being composed afresh every day. with every move: 400 board configurations after With a few colors, new paintings are created the first move, nearly 200,000 after the second every day. Creativity, therefore, is not limited by move, up to 121 million after the third, and the tools of expression or number, but only by the estimated to be nearly 10100000 in total (no precise capacities of the thinking and intuitive processes. calculations exist). This is just with 64 squares In numerical terms, a sustained creativity occurs and 32 pieces. Because this appears to be a very ex nihilo, infinitum. large, yet finite number, it is likely that inevitably, This capacity of the rules to change with the rise in the sheer computing power of completely alters the way in which calculations machines, a machine might beat a human player. are done and ends up making the calculations This is the method followed when comparing the irrelevant. As long as the rules for calculations mind and the machine: The possible number of are constant, they can carry some meaning, combinations is calculated in each case. but what meaning can be obtained when the However, a second look at the game reveals rules themselves get changed? This explains the an inherent assumption in this calculation: that difficulty faced by the best of mathematicians the rules of the game remain fixed. Because when dealing with things like negative numbers all the rules are geometrical/arithmetic rules and imaginary numbers, because the rules of (directions and steps of movement) that can be mathematics are changed. quantified with just an array of integers, the logic This possibility of changing rules was missed used is precisely that which can be mechanized. almost completely by logicians of the 19th What if, instead of restricting logic the way it century. It is possible that many aspects can is usually done, the numbers of possible rule- now be seen much better in hindsight due to configurations are calculated? If rules are allowed greater familiarity with the nature of technology, to change, how would it alter the situation? In while logicians and mathematicians of the 19th

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century were still experiencing the beginning of the Industrial Age. Biology had already reached a high level of development at the end of the 19th century, with the detailed study of cell structures and the nervous system being conducted. With the advent of technology, cells were seen as tiny machines or tiny test tubes with chemical interchanges with the DNA. The brain itself, made up of neurons, was seen in a similar fashion to resemble a gigantic factory-like operations- control center. Biology was explored using the tools of physics and chemistry, where mechanism reigned supreme, and it began to be taken for granted that cell functions determined human behavior. Removing the restrictions of number gives a much clearer look at the activity of the brain. Just as the piano can be broken or a string of a violin can go missing, it is indeed possible that physical variations in the brain cause intellectual capacities to vary. Snapping a few keys or over- tightening a few strings affects the sort of sounds the piano can produce. Thus, there is definitely a connection to the physical instrument and its expression. But the possible tunes that can be created on the broken piano are once that takes place in calculating the capacity of more infinite; hence there can be no calculable human thought and that of machines. difference between the working piano and the It might be argued that the piano has a broken one, in terms of its music. In addition, player who affects it from outside, and there the piano works due to the laws of mechanics: is none who can be observed to act as the vibration, lever action, pushes and pulls, pressing “player” for the brain. Here is where internal of keys, etc. Everything can be calculated, as to observation comes into play, the very same how each key can be pressed and each sound observation that enables one to observe one’s produced. It is the number of possible tunes that own thought processes and define notions is not calculable. Modern biology focuses entirely such as “consistency,” “logical,” and “internal on electrical actions and cell behavior, just as effort.” Ideas of logic and concepts do not occur if a person who wanted to learn music were to by peering through a microscope, but directly take the piano apart piece by piece to determine from an individual’s experience of them, which how the sound is created. This would naturally are later confirmed by looking through any lead nowhere as far as music is concerned, since instrument. Therefore, there is indeed a player, music lies in the combinations of sounds, not in the human individual, whose thoughts leave an their mechanisms. Similarly, creative thought lies impression on the brain via electrical impulses in its capacity to generate fresh ideas, and not in the same way a piano player leaves his in amino acids, neurotransmitters, and network impressions on the piano via the keys. interconnections. This shows the key difference

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If numbers have to be used to get an idea of attempting to define a fully consistent set of the difference between musical instruments and axioms based on the rules of symbolic logic. This the human brain, consider this: Music consists of transition from self-evident truths to axioms as a few basic notes, and there are new tunes being a basis for mathematics was completed with the produced even today. Calculating the number of monumental work by Bertrand Russell and A.N. songs ever sung would literally take forever and Whitehead: Principia Mathematica (1910). At the is infinite. If a few octaves of notes have been the precise point that mathematics transitioned into basis of all the infinite music ever played and will the abstract realm, technology came to the fore be played on instruments, what indeed could be in a very real and powerful way, via World War I. the capacity of 100 billion neurons? That gives The Great War, as it was called, was the first the real qualitative comparison of human creative one in recorded history that depended heavily on capacity, as a quantitative one is not possible. technology. Trench warfare led nowhere, shifting the emphasis onto bigger and better guns. The The Digital Transition use of mechanical calculators received a huge boost due to the need for accurate firing ranges Before Turing, things were done to numbers. of missiles and cannons. Even though digital After Turing, numbers began doing things. machines such as Herman Hollerith’s mechanical − George Dyson, Turing’s Cathedral census tabulator had performed well enough to be recognized in the mainstream, analog Mathematics and logic form the mold machines (with continuous motion) dominated into which technological applications are cast. the calculations during the war. If there was any As brought out in the previous chapter, far- aspect of art or aesthetics involved in the design reaching modifications were made to logic, and of earlier mechanisms, it was crushed out by the this effect carried through into mathematics war and replaced by the aspect of utility. Deadly as well. The way in which this change in logic, accuracy was the need of the time. Similarly, and the corresponding change in mathematics, inner effort was almost entirely devoted to determined the range and capacity of further formulating strategies. It was in the midst of this technological development will be the focus of upheaval that a small circle was pulled together this chapter. that would have a major role in the rest of the As the 20th century dawned, mathematicians century: Veblen’s circle. in Europe continued work on formal mathematics,

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As described in George Dyson’s book, discovery has been so influential that Shannon’s Turing’s Cathedral, this small workforce of thesis has been called “possibly the most mathematicians employed by Oswald Veblen for important, and also the most famous, master’s calculating gun trajectories consisted of people thesis of the century.” Until Shannon, computing who went on to make significant contributions to was carried out only with analog machines, the development of computers. e.g., the Differential Analyzer which was used to integrate differential equations necessary for Veblen organized the teams of human missile and bomb trajectory determination. Only computers who were placed under his after the application to switching and logical command, introducing mimeographed circuitry was it possible to build a practical digital computing sheets that formalized the computer, marking the birth of the digital era. execution of step-by-step algorithms for This transition from analog to digital has a processing the results of the firing range tests. parallel in mathematics as well. As pointed out It took the entire month of February to fire the previously, the transition from Logic in general first forty shots, yet by May his group was firing to Boolean Logic involved the sacrifice of infinite forty shots each day, and the growing force quantities, which cannot be represented either of human computers was keeping up. Veblen mathematically in an equation or mechanically. recruited widely, with a knack for discovering Even though all mathematical operations future mathematicians and making the best could be encoded, the numbers themselves use of their talents during the war. (Turing’s had physical restrictions. This meant that all Cathedral, p.40, 2012) signatures of the concept of infinity had to disappear from the number line. Consider the In addition, Veblen later helped set up the number line below: Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1930), which became the mecca for many talented mathematicians and physicists: Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, Kurt Gödel, Alan Turing, What are the categories of numbers Claude Shannon, and Robert Oppenheimer. It possible? If a, b, c represent the digits, they can was mainly in this Institute (and nearby Princeton be classified as: University where Alan Turing worked) that the achievements of computing theory and –Integers (a, b, c, -a, -b, -c etc.) technology were concentrated. The IAS was –Rational numbers (of the form a/b) to computers what the School of Athens was –Irrational numbers (5√a, 3√b etc. with a and for logic. It is quite illuminating to study this b prime) development in some detail, with attention to the –Transcendental numbers (π, e, πa, eb, etc.) concepts introduced by some of these workers. Even though the mathematics for digital Of these, only the first two can be measured circuits was available since the late 1880s with exactly, and also constructed by ruler and the works of Boole, Frege, Peirce and others, it compass. Most of the irrationals and all of the was only in 1937 that they were actually applied. transcendentals cannot be calculated. Even Claude Shannon, who was aware of the works though all these numbers exist on a number of Boole, realized that the algebra lent itself for line one draws with the sweep of a pencil, use in switching circuits for telephone networks. only the first two sets allow manipulations and Thus, a practical application of symbolic logic was calculations. For example, there is no way to determined for the first time. The effect of this indicate “7√7” (7th root of 7) or “π” exactly on

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a number line, even though one can easily draw This means that the range is reduced when a continuous line from 1 to 2 or 3 to 4. This is one transitions from the ideal analog computer the key principle that defines whether or not a to the ideal digital computer. This mirrors the number can be utilized in a mechanical process. development of Boolean logic, which jettisons Machines can therefore be used to conduct most of the comparisons except equality, and operations on integers and rational numbers thus reduces the range of the copulas previously only, while for the other two, approximations in use. Logic and Mechanism hence move in are naturally involved. One can add, subtract, step with each other. The fields of mathematics multiply and divide only using the integers and generate the corresponding mechanical rational numbers, and the mechanisms which operations thus: generate these functions together constitute an analog computer. Even ruler and compass, or Geometry => folding in origami, is something that shows an Construction with compass/ruler => analog operation. Analog machines Since irrationals, trigonometric functions, and logarithms are not constructible in general, for Arithmetic => centuries the only possible way to obtain them Integer number operations => has been through tabulating them empirically Digital machines and looking them up when required. This meant that mathematicians spent considerable time in It was important to go into this much detail creating these tables for later use. These are not regarding this transition because, in addition accessible to any known machine and are beyond to the discovery of the use of Boolean algebra the domain of exact calculation. Hence, the limits in circuitry, several mathematical and logical of analog computers are reached with rational identifications were made at this time with numbers. regard to computation. These were intimately What are the numbers that can be connected to this transition into the digital represented digitally? As the name suggests, world, since the focus now shifted from only those using the digits (fingers), namely geometric analog construction to arithmetical the countable numbers. Negative numbers and digital computation. While the Greeks focused decimal fractions cannot be represented directly on finding out if a certain statement was true, in terms of 1s and 0s, they can only be encoded developers of symbolic logic focused on finding so that the sign of the number or the placement out if a certain statement was provable, and of the decimal is added as an additional string of formal mathematicians focused on finding out if a digits. Nor can recurring decimals be represented, statement is computable. Concomitant with this, e.g., 1/3 can only be approximated as 0.3333333. all the struggles of the Greeks with paradoxes All irrational numbers are impossible to calculate in logic were recast as problems of proofs or in finite time; this ultimately restricts the set of problems in computability. numbers to whole numbers, i.e., 0, 1, 2, … n, The early problems with logic can be shown where “n” is as large a number as is physically with a classic example: the Liar’s paradox. possible to represent. This forms the range of This paradox (attributed, among others, to a digital system, as a direct consequence of Epimenides) is generally stated as: Boolean algebra. A digital computer can be 100% accurate only with integer addition, subtraction, Epimenides (a Cretan) says: All Cretans are liars. and multiplication. Any other operation involves approximations.

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Is this a true or a false statement? If it is true, it inventory of the contents of the warehouse; implies that it is false, and if it is false, it becomes the point of such an inventory is to record the true. A stricter example is a sentence like this: existence and location of every box contained This sentence is false. (Hehner 2014) Thus, right by the warehouse. The people taking the at the core of logic, a self-referential statement inventory must devise a path through the generates an absurdity, bringing into question warehouse so that they can count every box, the very ideas of true and false. This has been missing none and counting none twice. Physical tackled in numerous ways for a long time by inventories involve no magic; they must logicians. However, in the 20th century, two simply be carefully planned and meticulously mathematicians recast the resolution of this executed. Imagine that the inventory is now problem into modern form and shifted focus from complete, and the records on the warehouse’s “truth” to “provability” and “computability.” They contents are now available for inspection. were Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing, whose work Gödel’s proof demonstrates a method appeared at the same time as Shannon’s. whereby any wise-guy warehouse man, Kurt Gödel directed his attention to one of upon looking over the results of the physical the questions posed by David Hilbert regarding inventory, can enter the warehouse and turn formal systems of mathematics (1928). Hilbert up a box that does not appear on the records. asked whether such a formal description can ever Suppose the inventory records are corrected have a complete and consistent set of rules. Since to include the newly discovered box; after formal mathematics added several axioms, it was looking over the corrected records, the wise- of primary importance for this system to be fully guy can produce another unrecorded box, and consistent if it was to be valid. Gödel found out can keep doing so without limit. lf you were that this was not possible and one could always the manager of the warehouse, how would find a statement that could not be proved within this make you feel about your operation? the system, making the system incomplete. This Gödel’s incompleteness proof engendered is the precise analogue of the Liar’s Paradox similar feelings in mathematicians about their cropping up once again because the Paradox was knowledge of their own mathematical systems. not resolved but shunted from one domain to (David B. Black, Context and Significance of the other. Gödel’s Proof, Shoreline Vol. 4, p.55, 1991) The meaning of Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem (1931), as this came to be called, is This theorem can be applied to describe the clearly described in this warehouse analogy by behavior of points on the number line exactly. David Black: Just as between any two numbers one can always find another number that wasn’t counted before, To understand the consternation experienced in the set of algorithms, one can find one which by mathematicians as a result of Gödel’s wasn’t recognized before. discovery of the essential incompleteness While Gödel concentrated on whether a of mathematical systems, imagine that a system of formal mathematics was complete mathematical system is a large warehouse, and consistent, Alan Turing tried to find out if and that each true statement in the system it was possible to say beforehand whether or is a box stored in the warehouse. Naturally, not a certain statement could be proved (1937). boxes are counted when they enter or leave Since a proof was intricately tied to mathematical the warehouse, and records are kept of the mechanism, as shown earlier, generating a proof number of boxes and their locations in the depended on whether a number was computable warehouse. Now imagine taking a physical or not. And what did he mean by “computable”?

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“According to my definition, a number is being told by all of them and also experienced computable if its decimal can be written down by by the researcher. Since this depends on the a machine.” For example, a recurring decimal is experience of the researcher, logic necessarily has called computable because the rule to calculate it its limitations. This is the limit all logicians come can be encoded into the machine. Similarly π and up against. e can be expanded in terms of series expansions, However, Gödel converted the question of and are called computable by Turing. truth into one of provability and restated the Liar’s Paradox in the language of formal logic with π = 4 (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 … ∞) his Incompleteness Theorem. Turing’s notion of computability was flawed, but nevertheless his It is at this juncture that the classic “bait- attempt to reduce a system into computable and and-switch” can be identified: The computable non-computable faced the same barrier, leading number π is something that can be computed, as to his descriptions of the Halting Problem, which long as infinite time and memory are provided! is “just the Liar’s Paradox in fancy clothing.” This is really as meaningless as saying that it (Hehner, 2014) In addition, he also hit upon is possible to do something, with the minor the same problem of verifying the truth of a problem that it would literally take forever to do. statement, which cannot be done by staying The very definition of computable numbers is within the logical system, be it by computing or fundamentally flawed, as they are by definition by anything else. He therefore concluded that not computable. One can find a pattern to them, there was no way one could say beforehand just as π generates a circular pattern, but that is a by any method if a certain statement was far cry from actually constructing a length π units computable or not. long, which is not possible by calculation. Turing’s Hence, this entire development had the effect concept of computable numbers does not of hiding the irrationals and transcendentals address this issue (numbers that go to an infinite under the guise of computability, while the actual number of decimal places) but instead pushes it problems with logic were not resolved, but simply under the rug. recast in a new language. The reason for the Secondly, the entire exercise of provability, persistence of these logical problems was that paradoxes, computability, etc., can be illustrated the logic developed by the Greeks was still being by a simple example. Consider a group of people, used, only with more axioms and a smaller set say a dozen, and assume their talk is being of interrelationships (symbolic logic). The child studied by one interested researcher. There inherited the defects of the parent, so to speak. would be several statements which might be With the transition into digital machines, true, several lies, and several mixtures in their parallels with Greek development of logic are speech. If one among them declares aloud, “I now mostly complete. They can be represented am lying right now,” he or she has uttered the like this: Liar’s Paradox. If the sentence is true, it is false (a lie), and if it is false, it is true, making it stuck in GREEK MODERN a loop. In a second scenario, assume that all the Aristotle Boole people are saying the exact same sentence. There Stoics Frege, Peirce is no way of saying if all of them are lying or if all Epimenides Gödel, Turing of them are telling the truth. Geometric construction Digital computation These two situations exist, and the only Euclidean geometry Boolean algebra way the truth of the matter can be adjudged is Logic Symbolic logic if there is a real event corresponding to what is

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It appears that this connection to Greek Gopi Krishna Vijaya is from Bangalore, India. thought was missed by most people involved in He completed his undergraduate physics training the development of computers, who were really at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur stimulated by Turing’s work to build a machine (India) and his PhD in Physics (Solar Energy) at that could compute anything. With the success the University of Houston (USA) in 2014. He is of Shannon’s circuits and Boolean logic, it was currently engaged in the study of the Reciprocal increasingly taken for granted that all thought System of Physics, a way to inculcate Goethean processes can be expressed using Frege’s thought into modern physics. [email protected] symbolic logic, and that it can all be mechanized, even if it takes infinite time to arrive at the result (an illogical idea by all standards). Hence, the effects of irrationals and transcendentals were neglected and brushed to the side, while the essential problems that plagued Logic itself were not tackled directly, only reformulated. Following the contributions of Shannon, Gödel, and Turing, the task of making digital machines feasible was taken up very effectively by John Von Neumann and his collaborators. This last leg of historical development, which continued up to the end of the century, will be described in the next chapter (to appear in Research Bulletin 22-2, Autumn/Winter 2017).

Editor’s note: The references for this article, published in three segments, will appear at the end of the third installment (Research Bulletin 22-2 Autumn/Winter 2017).

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 Technology and the Celebration of Work as Developed in Waldorf Education

David Mitchell

[Editor’s comment: This article was first instructions, manipulate immense lists of facts, published in the Waldorf Journal Project #19, make music, and perform robotic tasks—all more April 2012. David Mitchell, the late co-director error-free than humans. of the Research Institute, was both prescient in At the same time we are exposed to anticipating the challenges that technology would telecommunications that connect us almost increasingly present and articulate in describing instantaneously with events as they unfold the countermeasures that Waldorf education around the globe. Time and space have become offers.] compressed, human potential has been expanded, and the world meets us in our living room! We are both informed and comforted. My house has a heating system that is controlled by a e live today in an exciting, fast moving, and miniature computer thermostat. I program it and, astonishing world! Rockets have lifted men and as the advertisement contends, I won’t have to Wwomen across 230,400 miles of emptiness to worry about being too hot or too cold ever again! explore the desolate, crater-pocked landscape We owe this all to technology. of the moon. Machines have been designed that We in the West are witnesses to the fact allow us an unprecedented ease of living. Time that, in a single generation, technology has is like a snowflake in our hand: It disappears changed our way of life. Yet, how many of while we are deciding what to do with it. Our us really understand this technology? More work week is shorter than ever before in history, importantly, what is our responsibility as and we find ourselves with large amounts of educators to bring technology in the correct way leisure time. This allows us more time to confront into our curriculum? How are we encouraging ourselves! It also presents us with interesting inventiveness and fostering a love for work in our problems! How do we fill this time? What is the students? relationship between our thinking and our will No one can deny that life has become easier life? Can we use our thinking creatively? Are we on the physical plane as a result of technological self-stimulating and able to continually educate innovation. Some regard technology as the ourselves? In this article I would like to explore universal benefactor, the distributor of science’s the relationship between creative thinking and bounty, successful in almost every undertaking to the ability to “do” work within the realms of which it has turned its hand. However, a shadow technology and education. side exists, which has become more and more Today’s students need to be made aware of apparent in recent years. The byproducts of the importance of cultivating different thinking technology have spread pollution on such a scale styles at a time when mankind’s left brain activity that scientists warn of an impending danger to all is promised a rest. Neurocomputers, designed life on earth. It is a paradox that the more time to imitate the structure and functioning of the we have for ourselves, the more mechanized our human brain, are being developed to take over civilization, the more hectic and stress-filled our everything mundane and repetitive. Already we lives have become, as well. We find that we need have computers that can speak, follow voice the extra hours we save each work week merely

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to rejuvenate ourselves physically and mentally. limbs, and, lastly, the thinking is stirred. Thinking How does education help us to deal with this? is objective, conscious, analytical. Feelings are A task of education must be to aim subjective, personal, colorful, and less conscious. technology in the direction of the long-term well- The life of the will is very subjective, individual, being of humanity. To do this one must develop and the most unconscious. Wisdom is acquired by a curriculum to discuss the above questions, a process of reflection made possible by a short recognize one’s motivations, and be able to pause in will activity. Waldorf education strives to exercise moral judgment. educate and harmonize these three realms, but During recent years there has been much it is in the realms of thinking and willing that we soul searching with regard to the aims and find the seeds of technology. It is man’s thinking direction of modern education. The ancient and inventiveness that has brought about Greek civilization knew its educational aims. technological innovation. Curiosity, playfulness, The foundation for all learning was wonder— and imagination are qualities that should be otherwise there could be no impulse to explore. encouraged in education if we wish to perpetuate In the early years of a child’s education, poetry, technological growth. music, and movement were developed so that in more mature years there would be an The process of technological innovation understanding for mathematics and philosophy. depends on intellectual spirit—on the To guide the social life, the religious leaders willingness to face change, to take risks. It gave moral instruction through the great dramas requires creativity, analytical skill, and an written by Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles. independence of mind. In the 17th century when the modern – Frank Newman scientific outlook was born, education took a new direction. Descartes gave the Western world Schools Need to Help Cultivate defined thinking. He said that “consciousness is a Love for Work attributed exclusively to the brain and nervous At the beginning of this century, most system.” students came from a rural, working In the 20th century, educator and environment. Their father was a farmer or a philosopher Rudolf Steiner said that if a person laborer. The purpose of going to school was to reflects upon the powers of his mind or soul, learn to think. At home they were occupied by he will soon discover that he has the capacity activities which exercised their will and made of expressing himself in three different soul them feel useful. They learned to “do” things out worlds—thinking, feeling, and willing. We can of necessity. experience many different kinds of thinking, Today, most students come from an urban from pure logical thought to the rich, imaginative setting and their parents leave home to go pictures of new ideas. The realm of feeling can to ‘work.’ The activity of the parents’ work is be experienced as cultural appreciation or as invisible to the child, and the direct results are spiritual experience of ecstasy or devotion. not always experienced or appreciated by the The will life exists from instinctive impulses to family. Life and work have become abstractly conscious, deliberate acts. An educational task separated. is to lead the will from the control of the feeling At the same time the media is omnipresent into the control of the thinking. and fills us chockablock full with information. All education starts with the teacher’s Today, a type of pseudo-thinking is learned inspiring interest in the feeling life of the outside of school. We are fed lots of information, students. It then goes on to the activity of the but information is not education. Information

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does not properly exercise the will, nor is it are drama, painting, cultural activities, music, satisfying for the soul! sculpture, art, and the time the teacher gives to The heads of many youth are filled with the students to express themselves. trivia; they have lost contact with real work. This Once the student has been connected to the task of learning about “work” has been passed subject through his feeling for it and awakened in over to the school. Today’s students need to his thought life, then the knowledge can flow into be taught to use their capacities, to apply their his will, into his active deeds. A Chinese proverb thinking in such a manner that they are able to do states the following: something with it. They are desperately in need of developing practical skills and building up their When I hear, I forget. self-confidence and independence. When I see, I remember. When I do, I understand. Waldorf Education Thought activity is cultivated through an In Waldorf education the education of the approach to the subject by which the phenomena will is an equally important part of the threefold are studied and evaluated before conclusions approach to education. In the academic area, and theories are drawn. This process leaves the students are asked to write their own main the student free to develop and exercise the lesson books and create their own projects. In capacity for judgment and discrimination. Work the practical realm, we offer courses in house in algebra, Euclidean geometry, and bookbinding building, stone carving, pottery, blacksmithing, strengthens the logical thinking, while projective and other crafts. geometry and experiencing the history of Idealism is kept alive by the curriculum where mankind stimulate imaginative pictorial thinking. all the subjects are centered around the human How the teacher phrases being. In the main lessons on the questions that put the Idealism is kept alive by art history, literature, poetry, student’s mind into activity is the curriculum where all music, and architecture, the all important. He or she must the subjects are centered evolution of mankind is traced train the student to look at from ancient times through the situations from various points around the human being. Medieval and the Renaissance of view and become able to …When the students up to the Modem Age. A life use synthetic and analytic study the computer, they philosophy is evolved in which approaches to problems. should also be able to science, art, and religion are Thinking is not, however, learn something about not artificially separated; the only part of an individual themselves! the qualitative as well as the to consider in education. quantitative is cultivated. Adolescents often arrive at their high school When the students study the computer, they asking the following questions: What really should also be able to learn something about matters? What is the point of it all? Who am I? themselves! To deal with these questions, the teacher must Steiner identified two great obstacles that penetrate beneath the surface of the subject. face adolescents, and he offered suggestions as The students must be stirred—their enthusiasm to how a curriculum could be formulated to assist must be kindled. They must care for what they the youth in meeting them. The first is “sexual are doing and desire to do their best at it. lust,” which can be met in them by keeping them Waldorf education strives to educate the feeling busy with meaningful tasks, by encouraging life as well as the thinking. The tools they use them to strive for beauty, and by keeping their

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hands busy with such Waldorf school subjects as which Alexander the Great solved, and the thread handwork, jewelry making, blacksmithing, stone trailed out by Theseus in the Labyrinth on Crete, sculpture, woodcarving, and joinery. with its mysterious thousand paths. The string The second danger is the “lust for power.” To and cleverness allowed Theseus to defeat the keep them from falling victim to this, the teachers Minotaur. Athena, called the Inspirer of all Arts must inspire the teenagers’ thinking. They must and Crafts, was born out of the head of Zeus and bring great ideas to them and moral thoughts. ruled over the world of thoughts. It is the crafts They must keep the intellect moving and help that teach the students to meet and overcome them develop altruism. They have the task of problems. They become engaged in an activity helping the students come out of their self- that on the one hand focuses them, and on the centeredness and of guiding them to help others other hand can lead them through the eye of the through service-motivated activities, such as needle whereby they become transformed by cleaning trash from a road, clearing a forest path, the process. helping at a home for the elderly, or working on Practical activity builds confidence in the a farm. students. The students need to experience To be absorbed in creative activity is the that work is wonderful, that work can be a joy. real fun of life. This process creates rather than Confidence is the key to academic success. By depletes energy. One can feel relaxed, in control, engaging in practical tasks the students “learn at peace, and in harmony. how to learn.” The more The puberty experience is [A]rts and crafts work interests and skills we can one of death—the child dies, as a preliminary stage develop in our students, the the adolescent is born. One of more fully they will participate the most powerful agents in of technical education in life. overcoming these death forces and are considered There are stages for each is to allow the children to model indispensable if the activity. First the student must and carve, to transform material pupils are to engage think or imagine the task, then enlivened by the forming power with social competence he must prepare, research, and of their own human spirit. in the work processes experiment. This is followed In carving and modeling the of a technical culture. by a very important incubation children can find an excellent period during which the idea outlet for their creative is allowed to rest so that new energies. It is difficult, if not impossible, to be directions may emerge. Finally the task is begun, absorbed in pursuing a meaningful goal and to be completed, and reflected upon. Lastly, any depressed at the same time. modifications that need to be made are done. The crafts program of the Waldorf school is These stages exercise both the thinking and the an example of how this takes place. Both arts and will life. crafts work as a preliminary stage of technical education and are considered indispensable if the Examples from the Waldorf Curriculum pupils are to engage with social competence in Education of the human being is meant the work processes of a technical culture. to be a lifelong learning process, especially in the vocational field, rather than a cumulative The Case for Crafts addition of pre-determined knowledge and skills. Mythology is full of stories connecting When we take the ability to learn and combine it weaving and knot-tying with wisdom. A few with self-confidence and optimism, we have the examples are the puzzle of the Gordian knot, capacity for lifelong learning. How admired are

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those individuals who are able to learn something Woodworking is taught from grades 4–12 new up to the day of their death! and demands the perception of the unique In the classroom we recognize three groups characteristics of each piece of wood as the of students. There are those who make things different quality, texture, color, and density are happen. Then there are those who watch examined. Measuring, cutting dovetails, and things happen, and finally there are those fitting joints merges with carving, rasping, and who wonder what happened! Those students sawing wood. In carving a piece of twisted elm, who are strengthened in their will activity are one learns to find form hidden within the grain usually the ones who make things happen. They and thus allow it to emerge out of the wood. Each are confident in themselves and not overly wood requires a different blade or gouge stroke. concerned about making a mistake. We must Each wood reveals to the carver its fast or slow teach our students how to adapt the mistakes growth, its moisture or dryness, calling for varying they make, rather than start over again. The degrees of accuracy and finish techniques. students must not be overly concerned with Copper work in grades 7–9 initiates the making mistakes because fear of mistakes will pupils into working with metal. In woodworking cripple their progress. The only way to avoid the students have a close connection with the mistakes is to avoid action. This is not something source of the material they are fashioning—the we want to encourage. What we want is courage tree. However, copper is a product of a technical and confidence, and this has been observed in process that is most likely unknown to them. students who have mastered practical activities. Transforming a flat piece of sheet copper into a The teacher’s proper attention to detail in vessel, by series after series of carefully-aimed practical skills during the elementary school years hammer blows while shifting it spirally across can metamorphose into intellectual dexterity in the form, must be a slow, flowing process or else the teenage years. In the early years in a Waldorf the material will become too thin. The soft, red school, work is developed as an outgrowth of glow of the copper may warm them but they can play. In these primary years the teacher sets immediately feel its hardness and rigidity. The the foundation for the high school. The student noise of the hammer striking it in a hardwood should leave the middle school with a craving to mold is sharp and assaults the ears; the odor of know, an insatiable curiosity about everything the hot, annealing metal irritates the nose. The that goes on around him, such that he can senses are fully engaged. convert this curiosity and craving for knowledge Their first task is to smooth the edges with into still further knowledge. a file; then it is textured with light hammer In grades 7 and 8, the students work with strokes spiraling out from the center on a hard wood, metal, stone, and fabric. The woodworking steel form. Only through rhythmical beating includes carving convex and concave objects does it soften and conform to the craftsman’s such as bowls and spoons, each of which has intended shape. Then after continuous pounding been designed with functionality in mind. They it becomes hard and brittle and needs to be also meet stone carving, in a material such as softened again by fining, followed by quenching soapstone which they craft into animals of their in water, whereby it abruptly changes color. Then own design. Careful observation is developed the hammering continues until a small bowl as the children chisel, rasp, and sand toward is created. completion. In craft work the key to development Finally it is buffed and polished to a high is learning to be patient. Students are asked to luster. The technique is repeated in more remember that the chick arrives by hatching the complicated ways in the upper grades for jars and egg, not by breaking it open with a hammer. vases and ladles. The students learn that rhythm

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saves strength. Ten days of hammering is needed soap making, automobile mechanics, batik, to make a vase. For twenty hours each stroke calligraphy, stained glass making, stone carving, must be identical to the one before it in order to furniture making, pottery, and jewelry making. produce a beautiful form. Stamina is developed. All students participate in various phases of these Working with copper develops a feeling for form courses, and as they progress through the school, and space as well as rhythmical mobility. some may focus on one craft to develop an In the pottery shop the students dig their expertise in it. hands into a tub of moist, brown clay. It is cool, In the high school everything that man heavy, and malleable. Slowly they exert pressure himself has created through nature and the from the outside and it is turned into a sphere. recognition of its laws should be penetrated They press their thumbs into …[E]verything that man with comprehension. one side and press a hole in Technology has issued from it and turn it so that the walls himself has created such comprehension. Steiner are proportional. A vessel has through nature and the said that each man who uses appeared—and this was a lot recognition of its laws a streetcar should know easier than with copper! The should be penetrated technically what happens so selection of glazes and firing with comprehension. that he really understands how techniques is an exploration Technology issues from motion is accomplished. He said, of chemistry. There is a lot of such comprehension. “We are living in the midst of a room for trial and error, for world produced by man, formed experimentation. by human thoughts, which we use, and which we Blacksmithing in grades 8–12 develops don’t understand. This fact––that we understand character as well as manual skill. Respect for nothing of something which is formed by man, of the power of red-hot metal comes quickly to something which is basically the result of human the aspiring blacksmith, and there is no time for thoughts––has great significance for the entire timidity because the metal has to be worked with sphere in which the human soul and spirit lives.” spontaneity and focus. Life today is also fast- paced and demands immediacy. The worker must Academics and Technology use his strength energetically, even explosively! Academic classes in Waldorf schools also There is no room for hesitation, because once pay attention to technology from grades 8–12. the metal cools, it loses its plasticity. The time For example, in the 9th grade history class, is very short. The look on a student’s face when the students study the Industrial Revolution. she transforms a ¾"-square stock into a multiple Through vivid pictures they learn from their twist pattern with relative ease is a sight to teacher of life in the mines, of child labor in dark, behold. Confidence is developed. The forge trains crowded English factories, of oppression and powers of decision. The blacksmith learns the suffering. They learn of agricultural invention fundamentals of the craft: keeping the forge fire and the promise of a better life. The study of burning, not allowing an oxidizing flame, handling the Industrial Revolution brings young people to the tools in a proper fashion, and developing an confront the issues of their times. Concerns for understanding for the laws of metallurgy. the underprivileged, the question of power and In a Waldorf high school you may also find authority, and the overwhelming domination other practical courses such as house building, of economic values over society are issues that carving, spinning, dying, bookbinding, sewing today’s Waldorf high schools have to address. with both treadle and electric machines, lock- The physics classes in the Waldorf schools smithing, papermaking, shoemaking, surveying, are dedicated to giving the students an

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understanding of the telephone and the steam Tac-Toe would be written and debugged by the engines in grade 9; weaving, spinning, turbines, students. Machine and assembly language would the internal combustion engine, the electric then be introduced as would fourth-generation motor, and technical mechanics in grade 10; languages. The students would then be given electricity, magnetism, and atomic energy in many exercises to practice programming and grade 11; optics, photometry, and chemical finally to learn how to recognize and overcome technology in grade 12. computer addiction. The third component of the introductory Computer Science course involved looking at the inner structure of When we think of the word “technology,” a microcomputer and the way in which machine the word “computer” is often the next word that languages work. Students would review Boolean comes to mind. The following course description algebra, de Morgan’s Law, and the binary number is for readers of this article who consider system. Using wiring boards (called breadboards), themselves avid technophiles. It illustrates how chips, switches, and wire, they would build a one- an 11th or 12th grader might find a computer bit adder, an R-S flipflop using only NAND gates, course in a Waldorf school. and four bit J-K shift registers. They would take One course that I was instrumental in on the study of logical propositions and logical designing back in the 1980s, when computers manipulation as a new kind of mathematics. were beginning to enter the home life with Then they would take breadboards and build the advent of the PC, had three fundamental simple and complex circuits. This would give the components. The first was to identify the myths students a practical experience in building their and realities about computers. What is it that own computer. they do and what do they not do? The next steps These three sections would be interspersed were to discuss linear thinking and flow charting with trips to a silicon-chip factory, a company ––the students could learn how to think like a using industrial robots, a corporation such as a von Neumann computer! Then flow charting national motel chain that sets all its reservations moved into programming and the concept of a by computer, or a large store that controls its procedural language. Artificial Intelligence would inventory and sales through the computer. be discussed, and the students would write and apply a simple program. The sociological Thinking Fructified by Practical Activity implications of computers would also be debated. Recent neurological research has confirmed In the second section on computers, the that mobility and dexterity in the fine-motor students would investigate programming and muscles, especially in the hand, stimulate cellular the nature of computer languages. Students development in the brain, and so strengthen the would write and debug a number of small basic physical instrument of thinking. Many forms of programs. They would work through flow charts thinking (analytical, synthetic, teleological, causal, for making chocolate-chip cookies and for starting etc.) need to be learned in today’s complex a car. They would also be called upon to imagine society. It is our task as teachers to apply these themselves as bankers and write a program various thinking techniques relative to the subject to develop interest rates and percentages on matter we are teaching. borrowed money. This section involved the history of the computer including the biographies The principal good of education is to create and work of Pascal, Babbage, and Lovelace. men who are capable of doing new things, not Programming concepts would be addressed and simply of repeating what other generations a program for a simple well-known game like Tic- have done. – Jean Piaget

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In cognitive development Waldorf schools building lean-to’s, or surveying large land areas. aim to develop the training of judgment and They learn to identify trees and appreciate the discretion. The capacity for conceptual thought diversity of wetlands. lies on a higher level of cognitive development. The 11th grade may go to a factory and The process of abstraction can be exercised by join the work of an assembly line for a week. In having students analyze their own work. The the evening there will be talks by the company method of examining why a piece of copper president about the goals, by the treasurer became too thin in a particular area or why a about the bookkeeping practices, by a labor joint of a compound dovetail union leader about the working didn’t fit lends itself to such The task of the conditions, and by shop stewards mental evaluation. Self- teacher today is not about production levels. observation, self-evaluation, to structure the minds The 12th grade will take on a and the capacity to take on of the students, but task of social significance such as responsibility are characteristics rather to enable insulating the homes of inner- of personal growth. city slum residents, or a project Skill learned in the crafts them to grow to new on behalf of the local city with becomes the development of dimensions that may regard to homeless shelters, old- practical consciousness. This even exceed our own age homes, retirement homes, practical consciousness has its understanding. etc. genesis in an increased power In addition to these of observation. The training of the power of projects, class-related trips based on technology perception is extended in the upper grades to are planned for every class so that they can precise observation. connect what is happening in the classroom with Handwork causes chemical crystallization activities that are happening in their immediate in the body. Physical activity breaks it up and community. brings about a sort of rebirth or surge of energy. Hence, there ought to be a conscious rhythm of Conclusion intellectual and practical activities throughout The task of the teacher today is not to the school day so that the students can maximize structure the minds of the students, but rather their learning potential. to enable them to grow to new dimensions that may even exceed our own understanding. In such Extracurricular Trips and Projects a manner can the teacher of the present serve Waldorf schools find it positive to incorporate the future. Teaching must become a continual trips into the curriculum. A week is set aside at learning process for the teacher as well as for the many Waldorf schools during which time each student. high school class has exposure to a different Educators can learn a lesson from industry. activity. The 9th grade spends a week working The 3M Company went from producing on a farm. They learn about the economy of sandpaper to roofing shingles, to Scotch tape, the farm, working with animals, and the sale to magnetic tape, to photocopying, and then to of byproducts, and they participate in all the reflective signs. All of these products require a practical work. They develop an appreciation common skill: how to apply a closely-controlled for the rhythms necessary for working such layer of material to a flexible base. The creative long days. thinking that evolved new products at 3M can The 10th grade spends a week working be stimulated by a proper relationship between on forestry projects, clearing a mountain trail, thinking and will activities in high school.

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Living is learning. When we are most alive, REFERENCES using most fully our energies, senses and Bruner, J. (1982). On Knowing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard capacities, we are learning the most. University Press. Harwood, A.C. (1958). The Recovery of Man in Childhood. – John Holt New York: Hodder and Stoughton. Lievegoed, B. (1987). Phases of Childhood. Edinburgh: Self-esteem is central to the whole problem Floris Books. of security in our modern world. Self-esteem Mitchell, D. (1985). The Waldorf Curriculum Chart. is also necessary to secure any type of success Milbrae, CA: Dawne Leigh Publications. in any endeavor. No one is capable of reaching Piaget, J. (1981). Intelligence and Effectivity. Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews. beyond the limits of self-imposed boundaries. Staley, B. (1988). Between Form and Freedom. Practical subjects, artistic lessons, and Wallbridge, England: Hawthorn Press. activities involving the hand can no longer be Steiner, R. (1969). Education as a Social Problem. New seen merely as supportive and enlivening factors York: Anthroposophic Press. of the curriculum. Rather they are absolutely ______. (1971). Human Values in Education. London: necessary in the education of a youth facing a Rudolf Steiner Press. complex and changing world. ______. (1981). A Modern Art of Education. London: Rudolf Steiner Press. By the time a student graduates from high ______. (1960). Study of Man. London: Rudolf Steiner school, he or she should have made a connection Press. with the main technologies of our age—from Stockmeyer, E.A.K. (1965). Rudolf Steiner’s Curriculum for the computer to an internal combustion engine Waldorf Schools. London: Rudolf Steiner Press. and what happens when we flip a switch and the lights go on. It is necessary to understand these things in order to feel at home in the David Mitchell, a Waldorf teacher for over world. Otherwise we are not able to live in forty years, took a class through eight grades full consciousness. The ability to do, to be before serving as a high school teacher in the productive and well-rounded, produces the very life sciences and several practical arts including independence we want in our students. blacksmithing, stonecarving, and woodwork. No individual will be able to retain his For many years he was a leading figure in the independence in our contemporary working Association of Waldorf Schools of North America world unless an emancipatory education has (AWSNA), including serving as its founding Chair endowed him with the practical capacity to do of Publications, in which capacity (1987–2012) so. An education is emancipatory only when it he edited and authored a long string of articles, enables young people to expand and stabilize journals, and book titles. As Co-Director of the their individual personalities before they Research Institute for Waldorf Education, he gave confront the conditions prevailing in a civilization the Research Bulletin its current form. dominated by technology. Education must train students to participate responsibly and creatively. We must see the technical and social changes of our time as a stage in the development of humanity.

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 Dyslexia in the Waldorf Classroom Survey of North American Waldorf Schools

Lalla Carini

his survey is part of a larger study aimed at educational therapy, that Rudolf Steiner’s overall better understanding how Waldorf schools methodology for teaching reading and writing Tapproach reading difficulties and what can be has elements of genius when applied to the done better or differently to serve seriously slower or different learner. However, remedial dyslexic children. teachers trained in the Extra Lesson often lack As a class teacher and remedial teacher for the training or experience of the class teacher. the last eighteen years, I came to the conclusion The training that remedial teachers receive is four or five years ago that an anthroposophical quite broad in scope, and does not specialize in approach to dyslexia and other reading difficulties literacy issues. In recommending intervention has not been sufficiently articulated. In spite of to anxious parents, Waldorf professionals insightful discussions of the complex phenomena often find themselves in conflict between two of dyslexia by esteemed doctors such as Thomas extreme positions. One position relies too heavily Weihs (1971), Michaela Glöckler (2013), Walter on the child’s ability to “outgrow” a learning Holtzapfel (2006), Armin Husemann (2002, p.290), difficulty, the other rushes to seek a “fix” through and Karl König (2002), and the lifelong dedication approaches that were created to fit the timeline of Extra Lesson founder Audrey McAllen (2004, and context of the mainstream classroom. 2002, 1998), no typology of reading difficulties, In practical terms, when a child is not validated by current findings in the neurology of reading fluently in the second, third, or fourth reading, is available to English-speaking Waldorf grade in a Waldorf school, does this mean s/he professionals.1 In the latest revised edition of needs specialized help? Will this child develop their landmark book, A Guide to Child Health, gradually the analytical skills required for Drs. Glöckler and Göbel give a brief description proficient reading? Or will s/he stall and of dyslexia. The section ends with the statement: suffer in self-esteem if not met with a specific “For severe cases, we recommend contacting intervention? Questions coming toward Waldorf a program that specializes in dyslexia therapy.” parents and teachers from specialists working (2013, p.388) with the mainstream also include: When do When should a family turn to specialized you expect the typical child to learn to read in a professionals? When should parents rather follow Waldorf classroom? How do you understand early the strategies for support commonly used by detection? Do you practice early intervention, Waldorf class teachers and remedial teachers? and, if so, in what ways? The survey I conducted Can parents trust that the screenings used in serves to clarify which of these questions live Waldorf schools are accurate in identifying a most strongly in the schools and which are serious reading difficulty? Can teachers feel that already being addressed. Short of giving full they have been well prepared to identify and answers, this report will point out some of the address different types of learners with respect perceptions and opinions that may need to shift to literacy development, and to what extent? before teachers can work in full confidence with It has been my experience, as a Waldorf class parents and professionals to meet the needs of teacher and remedial teacher who has also these children. trained in a variety of mainstream approaches to

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A Word on the Label “Dyslexia” in the Waldorf Schools,” Dr. Glöckler urged What is dyslexia and why would we label that teachers learn to distinguish “harmless, a child dyslexic? Dyslexia or specific reading ‘normal’ spelling mistakes from the not so disability is used in the mainstream to ensure that harmless, dyslexic ones.” (1988) Reporting on the children who struggle to learn to read will not be contribution of psychologist Peter Zimmermann, labeled unteachable, as they were in the past, but Dr. Glöckler stated the need to recognize this rather will be met with the most effective known profile early and to address it appropriately at practices suited to their learning differences. each stage of the child’s development. In A Guide Reading is a fetish in our culture. It is also a to Child Health, Glöckler goes as far as to say, fundamental skill. The definition of dyslexia, “The appearance of physical and psychological as a difficulty with reading symptoms [that stem from acquisition that is unrelated Dyslexia or specific anxieties connected to reading to the child’s overall cognitive reading disability is failure] is a clear sign that the abilities, points to a continuum. used in the mainstream condition needs to be treated (Shaywitz 2003, pp.27–29; Siegel to ensure that children as an illness.“ She concludes, 2006, p.1) The continuum spans who struggle to learn “Thorough diagnosis followed from children who, in our view, to read will not be by individual help and support is may have been forced to learn labeled unteachable ... required.” (2013, p.387) to read when they were not but rather will be met One aim of my survey was to determine whether mature enough in their sensory- with the most effective perceptual development, all Waldorf professionals the way to children with a known practices distinguish dyslexia, as a specific specific neurobiological profile, suited to their learning neurological profile, from other most often with a genetic differences. learning issues. Such issues component. (Siegel) This profile include the reading difficulties is characterized by a number of significant gifts, encountered by many children who simply which Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide designate need more time to develop the analytical skills collectively as “the dyslexic advantage.” (Eide necessary to master reading. 2012). There are pros and cons to calling children The Survey “dyslexic.” In the first school years, children need I received 66 complete responses, providing to be seen and supported in the development data relative to 57 schools in North America. Of of foundational capacities. As they get older, these schools, all but three serve students up however, explicit dialogue about the strengths to grade eight or beyond. Survey respondents and weaknesses of their dyslexic learning profile include the following: 33 class teachers, some has proven, in my experience, to be an essential of whom also cover educational support duties strategy for supporting the child’s self-esteem. in the school or are Care Group members, 20 Historically, Waldorf teachers have resisted educational support teachers with a variety of labeling children who struggle to read because duties, 6 respondents not directly involved with they find that the Waldorf method, by supporting learning support, and 6 working exclusively in the maturation of all underlying capacities, could private practice. Only one response came from a succeed in getting children to read fluently by eurythmy teacher who is also a support teacher; the end of the grade school years. However, as no responses came from eurythmy therapists. early as 1988, in the report on the conference in The survey was comprised of two sections. Herdecke, “On the Present Situation of Dyslexia Section A focused on the monitoring and

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detection of reading difficulties. Section B polled to confirm that Waldorf schools teach reading perceptions and opinions about the current successfully and that identifying a Waldorf approach to reading difficulties in Waldorf timeline of reading development is important schools. Following the survey, I interviewed six and helpful. In fact, in lectures given in Dornach seasoned class teachers for their experiences in 1923, when Rudolf Steiner discussed the three with dyslexic students. Their responses further methods for teaching reading, he stated that “if confirmed the general findings summarized in young pupils have been taught in this way, they this article. They also strengthened the case for will be able to read in due time—perhaps a few the questions that remain to be addressed. months after the ninth year. Depending on the The collected data show that Waldorf child, this stage may occur a little earlier or later.” schools are succeeding in creating structures (1996, p.83)2 for educational support (80%) Steiner also said that to help with prevention, Teachers repeatedly children who don’t learn to read screening, and intervention. raised the concern that before the twelfth year may Tutorial support is part of these the ability to monitor in the end be healthier, even efforts in most of the schools and address struggling “smarter,” than those who read (70%). Eurythmy therapy is also students varies greatly very early. The question for the offered (59%), but at a lower teacher is: Do we know what we rate than both tutoring and from one class teacher are seeing? My stance, shared by educational support. Only 26% to the other. Susan Goldstein, an experienced of respondents indicated that teacher and mentor from Santa their school consults with an anthroposophical Cruz, CA, is that “if a child is not reading by the physician, and then usually on an irregular basis. end of third grade, a Waldorf class teacher should know why that is so, and an open conversation Monitoring and Detection should be happening with the parents about the Given the continuum on which reading child’s learning profile.”3 This level of expertise difficulties manifest, I consider it important in the teaching of reading is necessary for all in my own work as an educational support teachers and certainly for anxious parents who teacher to be clear at what point, on average, want to trust the school with their different the gap between readers and non-readers in learners. a class begins to widen. Most schools do not The survey confirmed that class teachers have have quantitative data of this sort, even though complete freedom and independence in how they can easily be collected through yearly they assess learning. Teachers assess learning observational assessments. mostly through informal measures. However, For the survey I chose to pose the question use of some formal assessments is becoming of reading proficiency at two different points more common. Teachers repeatedly raised the in time. The overall response I received is concern that the ability to monitor and address comparable to what I found in my school: Upward struggling students varies greatly from one class of 75% of children are deemed to be independent teacher to the other, which is why educational readers by the end of third grade; almost 90% support positions have been established. Many of read regularly for pleasure in sixth grade. The the larger schools also offer small-group tutorial more specialized colleagues with a mainstream support. Most often, a resource teacher with background, who think in terms of graduated mainstream training does this tutorial work. In readers and fluency rates, would have wanted my experience, simple phonics, reading, and more detail. However, I considered it sufficient spelling inventories used in the mainstream can

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add a helpful tool to a teacher’s observational when choosing appropriate teaching strategies. notes about their students.4 Although many of these strategies are already Brock and Fernette Eide (2012), authors of best practices in most Waldorf schools, the six The Dyslexic Advantage, highlight the gifts that experienced colleagues I interviewed agreed accompany the neurological profile associated that ongoing monitoring by resource teachers with serious reading struggles. These include provides immense support to the class teacher. strong visual-spatial capacities, strong oral All six of these colleagues were able to maintain narrative abilities, strong interpersonal skills, one or more deeply dyslexic students in their and strong associative thinking. A simple test classes thanks to specialized programs set up offered for free on their website5 provides a by the parents within or parallel to the Waldorf general indication. When it comes to proper program. In the upper grades accommodations recognition of this specific were set in place to enable these profile, the survey showed a Early detection is seen students to succeed. lack of such knowledge among by dyslexia advocacy Measures such as audio teachers in Waldorf schools. In groups as a means books and previews of reading fact, 53% of respondents had to ensure that the assignments can contribute no acquaintance with specific gifts that accompany greatly to the success of a screenings that would identify seriously dyslexic or struggling such a profile, but showed dyslexia are taken into reader. The survey showed that interest in learning more about consideration when the use of accommodations them. One such assessment choosing appropriate for struggling learners in is the WRAT-4, which might teaching strategies. the upper grades is limited be helpful for schools that are to 44% of respondents. All feeling pressure to send children for outside teachers need to make conscious use of these assessment. Easy to administer, it is available for differentiated strategies, which range from giving purchase by teachers with a master’s degree.6 extra time for the completion of assignments to When a school administers simple screenings, frequent conferencing for either more explicit it spares the parents from having to get a full instruction or oral assessment. Implementation assessment outside, which is not necessary in should not be dependent on the goodwill of most cases until high school. Proper identification individual teachers, as is the case with 47% of and treatment of seriously dyslexic students has our respondents, but should rather become best been an issue in many Waldorf schools. Forty-six practice for all. percent of respondents stated that they knew of children in their schools who “fell through Perceptions and Opinions the cracks.” Some respondents spoke from The survey showed a solid commitment personal experience, voicing disappointment among the respondents to the Waldorf approach that so little had been done to help their child. to literacy. Careful support for the maturation of It is important to note that in one third of the the four bodily senses comes first, then an artistic schools polled, such incidents happened prior approach with strong oral language experiences to the establishment of an educational support and the “writing road” to reading, then a patient position, which was often instituted as a response recapitulation of missed steps once the time is to parent dissatisfaction. ripe, and, I would include, much eurythmy and Early detection is seen by dyslexia advocacy form drawing. Almost one third of respondents groups as a means to ensure that the gifts that saw struggling readers thriving in the upper accompany dyslexia are taken into consideration grades when given individual plans of support.

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However, half of the respondents confirmed that Waldorf schools around reading and literacy a Waldorf approach to reading difficulties hasn’t difficulties, both at the level of understanding been sufficiently articulated. This calls for a more the phenomena and teacher preparation, and extensive sharing of success stories. at the level of school structures for support and A statement by Abigail Marshall, a dyslexia communication with parents. The results of the specialist, on the inadequacy of the Waldorf Dyslexia Survey should serve to spur discussion, classroom in meeting stimulate further research, dyslexic students came Careful support for the and renew enthusiasm for right up when I searched maturation of the four bodily solving the riddles that online the words Waldorf senses comes first, then an these different learners and dyslexia. Responses artistic approach with strong bring to our schools. commenting on her book, oral language experiences When Your Child Has and the “writing road” to ENDNOTES Dyslexia (2009), confirmed reading, then a patient my experience that a 1. The most recent typology, developed jointly by standard Waldorf school, recapitulation of missed steps once the time is ripe. anthroposophic doctors and with relatively large classes educational researchers, was and no abundance of given by Dr. Michaela Glöckler resources to pour into support systems, meets 28 years ago, in 1988, after a conference held in challenges similar to those in mainstream Herdecke, Germany. A report on this conference, private schools, where parents carry most of the which I will reference here from a typewritten copy in English, titled “Are There Dyslexic Children in Waldorf financial burden of remediation. The question Schools?”, was published in the German periodical is, again: What can schools do to minimize the Erziehungskunst in the same year. need for families to pour extra resources into 2. This timeline was given in the context of the German individual support outside school? Giving a clear language, which has a far simpler spelling structure. presentation of the many options available in the 3. Private interview, March 2015. greater community is helpful to parents, as well as 4. See the rich word study resource Words Their Way a strong retention tool. (Bear 2008) for an example of spelling inventories. 5. www.dyslexic advantage.org Given all the forms of support that have 6. Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT-4), G. been implemented in the schools during the last Wilkinson, published by Pearson. few years, it is not surprising that more than half of the respondents perceive teachers to be reasonably to extremely satisfied with the WORKS CITED overall way they have been addressing reading Bear D., et al. (2008). Words their way, 4th Ed. Upper difficulties. What shall we make of the other 45% Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Eide, B.L. and F. (2012). The dyslexic advantage. New who either feel teachers are not satisfied (30%) York: Penguin Books. or do not have a way of telling? We should again Glöckler, M. (1988). “Gibt es legasthenische Kinder an der hope that more schools invest in supporting Waldorfschule?” Erziehungskunst, Heft 9, S. 585. their class teachers and that the benefits of this ______. (2013). A guide to child health.Edinburgh, UK: support will be shared with their communities. Floris Books. The experienced class teachers I interviewed Holtzapfel, W. (2006). Children’s destinies. Spring Valley, NY: Mercury Press. echoed Dr. Glöckler’s advice: “In all cases … Husemann, A., Grief, D. & Bucher, E. (2002). “Dyslexia in close cooperation among therapists, teachers, the Waldorf school: A case report.” In M. Glöckler, and parents is necessary.” (2013, p. 388) This Education as Preventive Medicine (pp.290–301). Fair report highlights several questions that live in Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press.

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König, K. (2002). On reading and writing. Camphill Books. Lalla Carini is a Waldorf class teacher and Marshall, A. (2009). When your child has dyslexia. Avon, Extra Lesson remedial teacher with 20 years MA: Adams Media. of experience as an educator. Currently a block McAllen, A. (2004). The extra lesson. Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press. teacher at The New Village School in Sausalito, ______. (1998). Learning difficulties: A guide for CA, Lalla also holds a private practice working teachers. Wilby, M.E. (ed.). Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf with individual students with learning differences Steiner College Press. through high school. Her experience includes ______. (2002). Teaching children handwriting. Fair the establishment of educational support in a Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press. large independent urban Waldorf school, early Shaywitz, S. (2003). Overcoming dyslexia. New York: childhood and adult education. She is currently Vintage Books. Siegel, L.S. (2006, 11(9)). “Perspectives on dyslexia.” completing a Master’s Project on the Waldorf Paediatrics & child health, U.S. National Library of approach to the remediation of reading and Medicine, national Institutes of Health, pp.581–587. writing difficulties. Lalla lives in San Francisco Steiner, R. (1996). The child’s changing consciousness. with her husband Paolo, also a Waldorf teacher, New York: Anthroposophic Press. and their three children.

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 Book Review Postformal Education: A Philosophy for Complex Futures

David K. Scott

ostformal Education, as a title, may appear psychologist and educator at the University of forbidding. However, the reader will discover a Technology, Sydney, and President of the World Pbook on transforming education, in which the Futures Studies Federation, a UNESCO and UN word “love” appears 189 times and “wisdom” Partner. Her speaking and research collaborations 279 times. By contrast, the word “test,” so span many countries including Australia, Europe, prevalent in educational circles these days, occurs USA, Middle East, and Asia, and she serves as a only 39 times! The contrast is reminiscent of a Fellow at the Center for International Studies and statistic from Darwin’s The Descent of Man, in Research in Paris and at the Botin Platform for which the phrase “survival of the fittest” appears Innovation in Education in Spain. Her previous only twice while the word “love” occurs 95 times, books include The University in Transformation, as noted by David Loye. We seldom mention Youth Futures, and most recently The Future: A the word “love” in the teaching of evolution or Very Short Introduction. education more generally. The reason may lie She is not only a theoretician, philosopher, in the author’s assertion: “What masquerades historian, scientist, artist, poet, and sociologist for education today must be seen for what it but also an innovative practitioner. Creativity is is: an anachronistic relic of the industrial past.” her hallmark. Early in her career, she founded Her solution is an education based on four core a modern, creative version of a Rudolf Steiner values–love, life, wisdom, and voice. Without School in rural Australia, where she taught for ten “voice” in an age of proliferating communication years. Of this experience, she writes: devices and social media, the first three will be harder to incorporate. I knew learning could be otherwise. As a However, the transformation is far from responsible participant in their (and my) joyous simple. As the author writes, “This book is not for learning of every imaginable subject through the faint-hearted, or those wanting to tinker with stories, drawing, painting, singing, movement, the edges of the outmoded schooling model. It drama, music, poetry, mythology and play, raises a planet-wide call to question how we think I have guided numerous children from the and how we educate. It charts a course toward age of five or six to puberty. And perhaps as a post-formal education philosophy based on a surprise to many mainstream teachers, the the most advanced developmental psychology children also became literate and numerate and education research—as a foundation for in the process. But instead of just developing educational futures. … If higher order, more a narrow, functional literacy, they developed complex forms of cognition do exist then how rich and broad literacies. They learned to read can we better educate children and young for meaning, to write creatively, to share, to people so that more mature forms of reasoning respect nature, to imagine worlds beyond their appear at the appropriate life stage?...Put simply, immediate one, to have social confidence, a we cannot solve tomorrow’s problems with passionate love of learning and the courage to yesterday’s thinking.” be the ones to change the world. Jennifer Gidley is well equipped to assume this formidable challenge. She is an Australian

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Perhaps an apt subtitle for this path- and densely packed ideas dating back thousands breaking work is her phrase, “Megatrends of of years up to the present and illustrating how the Mind,” since the main thesis is that human many seemingly modern ideas have roots in consciousness and cultural evolution encompass antiquity. In earlier times these ideas were several stages. While she does not go so far as to unexamined and natural. Now the collected claim, as did Haeckel, that ontogeny recapitulates research presented in this work enables us to phylogeny, she draws on the work of many understand the connections. The various stages philosophers, sociologists, historians, educators, of consciousness evolution were all necessary and scientists who have promoted this idea. The to bring us to our modern understanding. In title of the book, Postformal Education, derives addition, 40 tables summarize concepts and from the work of the educator Jean Piaget, who logical connections of ideas from many cultures in the mid-20th century identified four stages of and bring the text to life. The style, design, and development, culminating in formal operations; construction of the book model its holistic, many theorists now recognize additional stages integrative content. of post-formal reasoning. Gidley also draws In a breathtaking voyage through the past, on the theories of evolutionary stages from present, and future, this book synthesizes an Steiner, Gebser, Aurobindo, Wilber, Bohm, and extraordinary wealth of research and educational Laszlo, among many others. The details differ, philosophy. It is structured into three sections, but they map an evolution through mythic, each with three or four chapters. Part I frames archaic, rational, analytical stages to an emerging the book in the context of the evolution of integral, holistic perspective. Successive stages consciousness. Part II gathers the existing do not totally reject earlier ideas; rather they research on higher stages of reasoning, revealing transcend and include. While the notion that links between play, wisdom, imagination, ecology, human consciousness and culture have evolved holism, and love. The book stresses the well- is largely undisputed, the new revelation in this established theory of multiple dimensions of work is that now the evolution allows our active intelligence although most current models of participation in a post-formal, integral, and education focus on only one. Drawing on these planetary consciousness. studies, Part III articulates four core pedagogical Gidley argues that our educational models, principles central to a post-formal model of which she identifies with the mid-18th-century education­—love, life, wisdom, and voice. Based industrial expansion and a mechanistic approach on these four principles, education can prepare to education, are overly formal and analytical. young people to become complete and whole Now the evolution of human consciousness individuals, more appreciative of multiple liberates us to address the complex challenges perspectives, more trans-disciplinary and facing a very different, 21st-century world. connected. While the tools and the theory are available, Like a Greek Chorus singing stern warnings educators are paradoxically slow to incorporate in unison, there is now a growing movement the research. The message, in short, is: If we are inside and outside the academy advocating a to change the world, we must change our way new educational model. In the words of Hegel, of thinking. Just as we have moved in the past “The Owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with from pre-modernism to modernism to post- the falling of the dusk.” Philosophy comes to modernism, this book portends a transformation understand a historical condition just as it passes to trans-modernism. away. The book suggests we are at such a branch Twenty diagrams in art, science, and point in choosing how we want society and spirituality enliven and illuminate the challenging culture to evolve.

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There are many nascent movements— decades to blossom. The Information Age could, integral and integrative learning, contemplative however, serve as a catalyst to accelerate the practice, meditation, and spirituality in transformation. education—giving intimations of the The words of the poet, Christopher Fry, came transformation advocated in this book. Presently, to my mind while reading this book: “Thank these movements are like separately flowing God our time is now when wrong comes up to streams. This path-breaking work by Gidley meet us everywhere, never to leave us till we leads to a convergence of the streams into one take the longest stride man ever took. Affairs are river, carving out a path for educating future now soul size.” Gidley shows that the challenges generations to be more humane, caring, and we face in the world and education are indeed committed to building a better and wiser world. now soul size; she provides us with soul-size She also shows that many of our problems may transformations. Everyone interested in a better be interrelated. We do not ignore stress and future should read this book. It may inspire us to teenage suicides in our schools and colleges, act before it is too late. but we set up separate offices to address them. Perhaps the proposed transformation might serve as a universal solvent in an integrated approach David K. Scott is a former Chancellor of the to the education of mind, body, and soul. University of Massachusetts Amherst. As the Industrial Age was taking hold, there were counter-revolutions such as the Romantic Movement and the Transcendentalist Movement in the 19th century, each with intimations of an Postformal Education: integrative and spiritual approach. Steiner based A Philosophy for Complex his philosophy of education on similar ideas, Futures as did the Paideia principle in ancient Greece. Author: Jennifer Gidley Philosophers in the 16th and 17th centuries Critical Studies in Education sparked the Scientific Revolution and the 3, Springer International Enlightenment with ideas soon integrated into Publishing, Switzerland, the general thinking and education. Now we have 2016, 1st Edition rigorous research from philosophers, scientists, ISBN 978-3-319290-68-3 psychologists, educators, sociologists, all drawn 978-3-319290-68-0 (e-book) together in this far-reaching book. Perhaps we 291 pages with illustrations and tables are on the verge of a new Enlightenment, led Hardcover price $99.99 once again by thinkers from many disciplines. Can they all be wrong? When we think of the evolution of consciousness and culture, we also think of three great periods of human activity —the Agrarian Age, the Industrial Age, and the Information Age. The author cautions us that the Information Age, despite its potential for greater connectivity, is unlikely to be the harbinger of the educational revolution advocated in this book. Rather we should look at the next emergent level of consciousness as the sign of a coming Integrative Age. Let us hope it does not take

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 Report from the Online Waldorf Library

Marianne Alsop

he Online Waldorf Library had more than We have also added to our collection of 150,000 site visitors in 2016. In addition to the audio books. New audio books were: The TUnited States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Art and Scence of Teaching English by Dorit Canada, India, Philippines, Spain, New Zealand, Winter; Associative Economics by Gary Lamb; Russia, and South Africa rounded out the top ten Developmental Signatures by Reiner Patzlaff, countries from which site visits originated. In the Wolfgang Sassmannhausen, et al.; Chapters from first two months of 2017, Mexico and Malaysia Ancient History by Dorothy Harrer; and Will- have joined the top ten countries, replacing Developed Intelligence by Patricia Livingston and Russia and Philippines. It is exciting to see where David Mitchell. Waldorf education is growing and where the OWL is meeting the need for freely accessible The OWL is adding a large number of issues information. of the Spanish language newsletter,Boletin de Metodologia, translated and published for many In the latter part of 2016 and early 2017, a years (1971–2002) in Mexico by Juan Berlin. number of new eBooks were added, including Issues from 1971 and 1972 are now available and several in Spanish, one in Chinese, and one in subsequent years will follow. English. Spanish eBooks included Biografias Para Historia de 8 Grado by Susan Cook; La As always, back issues of the Research Enseñanza de la Historia by Christoph Lindberg; Bulletin, Gateways (Waldorf Early Childhood La Importancia de sur Musical by Cynthea A. Association); The Journal of the Pedagogical Frongillo, and Crear Espacio para los Ángeles by Section, and a number of other international Reg Down. In Mandarin, a booklet, Confessions of publications are available online in our Journals a Waldorf Parent, by Margaret Gorman, became section. our second offering in this language. From our The Online Waldorf Library welcomes your colleagues at Editorial Rudolf Steiner S.L. in questions, and we are happy to help you with Madrid we now have posted these new titles: your research projects. Educación del Niño, La Filosofia de la Libertad, and La Ciencia Oculta, all by Rudolf Steiner. Added in English was the eBook version of An www.waldorflibrary.org English Manual by Dorothy Harrer.

Three updated AWSNA/Waldorf Education booklets were added to the website: Learning to Learn, Windows into Waldorf, and Waldorf Education, An Introduction and two previously published eBooks were redone for better online viewing.

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 Report from WaldorfArticle TitlePublications

PatriceAuthor’s Maynard Name

he Research Institute for Waldorf Education and made possible by the Waldorf Curriculum (RIWE) has inaugurated a new study into the Fund (WCF). There are now nine audio books Tresults of Waldorf education through a survey of from which to learn while you run, walk, drive, its high school graduates. With generous funding or simply relax. Spanish books and articles too from the Waldorf Educational Foundation (WEF), numerous to count are growing in number as we and the Waldorf Curriculum Fund (WCF), which report. Books and articles in English abound there funded the first research over a decade ago, also, along with Research Bulletins and Renewal this new round of investigation is being led by articles. All for download, free of charge! Liz Beaven, who has launched the preparatory stages of contacting Waldorf schools, developing The RIWE website also has a growing number forms for gathering information concerning of research articles and papers from the broader graduates, and setting up tools for collecting data. world of research in support of the practices The survey instrument is also being revised for in Waldorf education. Rudolf Steiner predicted maximum use of information about the value of that science would catch up eventually with the Waldorf education in the lives of our graduates. Waldorf methodology, and this is beginning. Lessons learned from the first Survey of Waldorf Of course, Waldorf Publications continues Graduates will be incorporated into this new to make high-quality resources available to the instrument of research to increase clarity Waldorf community. Coming up soon: Helping and insight into the efficacy of a full Waldorf Children on Their Way: Keeping All Children in education. Our Schools, by Elizabeth Auer; The Task of the Research into the colleges attended, College of Teachers by Roberto Trostli; At Home in professional choices made, and values upheld by Harmony: Teaching Families to Sing Harmoniously Waldorf graduates is planned for completion in by Meg Chittenden;Fire the Imagination–Write 2018, making it available for “Waldorf 100,” the On! A Guide to the Teaching of Writing in Upper global celebration of Waldorf education in 2019. Grades by Dorit Winter; and more! The work done on this will be shared by Douglas Gerwin with the International Forum for Steiner/ Waldorf Education (formerly the Hague Circle), our international “college of teachers” supporting Waldorf schools round the world, of which he is a member. A new invitation to Waldorf communities to join in the festivities can now be found at www. waldorfresearchinstitute.org/ waldorf-100/

Visit the Online Waldorf Library, http://www. waldorflibrary.org/audio-books capably managed by the indomitable Alsops (Marianne and Dave),

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 About the Research Institute Article Title for Waldorf Education

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he Research Institute for Waldorf Education books published by the Waldorf Early Childhood (RIWE), founded in 1996 in order to deepen Association of North America (WECAN) and the Tand enhance the quality of Waldorf education, Pedagogical Section Council (PSC) of the School engages in sustained dialogue with the wider for Spiritual Science, as well as AWSNA’s twice- educational-cultural community and supports yearly magazine Renewal. research to serve a wide range of educators in As an initiative working on behalf of the their work with children and adolescents. Waldorf movement, the Research Institute The Research Institute supports projects receives support and guidance from the PSC dealing with essential contemporary educational and financial support through the following issues such as computers and the effects of organizations: media on children, alternatives to standardized • Astoria-Stiftung testing, physical health and psychological well- • Foundation for Rudolf Steiner Books being of students, science teaching with a • Freunde der Erziehungskunst phenomenological approach, the role of the arts • Marshall and Margharite McComb Foundation in education, and the philosophical underpinnings • Rudolf and Clara Kreutzer-Stiftung of Waldorf education. • Rudolf Steiner Charitable Trust As a sponsor of colloquia and conferences, • Sprout Foundation the Research Institute brings together educators, • Waldorf Curriculum Fund psychologists, physicians, and social scientists • Waldorf Educational Foundation for discussions on current issues related to • Waldorf-Stiftung education. RIWE publishes a Research Bulletin twice a year and prepares educational resources, The Research Institute is a tax-exempt including collections of eBooks and articles (a organization and accepts contributions through growing number of them newly translated into its annual giving campaign and special appeals. Spanish). Many of these publications are available without charge on the website of the Online Summary of Activities Supported by the Research Institute Waldorf Library (OWL), a virtual library created and managed by the Research Institute: avalon initiative www.waldorflibrary.org. A think tank for questions of freedom in education In 2013 the Research Institute took over the colloquia (with published proceedings) on teaching: Chemistry publications arm of the Association of Waldorf Computer and Information Technology Schools of North America (AWSNA) and re- English branded it as Waldorf Publications. It includes Life Sciences and Environmental Studies resources for teachers and administrators, Mathematics readers and children’s books, collections of plays Physical Sciences and poetry, science materials and kits, science U.S. History World History: Symptomatology and math newsletters, inspirational essays, online waldorf library (owl) proceedings of colloquia, and a range of publicity Over 2000 articles and 700 book titles materials about Waldorf education. It also carries

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 72 • About the Research Institute recent research projects Research Bulletin ActionWave study Editor: Elan Leibner Alternatives to Standardized Assessment email: [email protected] Computer Technology in Waldorf Schools Cover design: David Mitchell Human Sexuality Curriculum Copy editing: Douglas Gerwin Survey of Waldorf Graduates Proofreading: Ruth Riegel Waldorf High School Curriculum Research Projects Production/layout: Ann Erwin research bulletin Two issues per year of essays, articles, reviews, Research Institute for Waldorf Education and commentaries on educational themes Douglas Gerwin, Executive Director Milan Daler, Administrator retreats of the research institute P.O. Box 307 • Wilton, NH 03086 Presentations and discussions exploring Phone: (603) 654-2566 • Fax: (603) 654-5258 contemporary questions related to education email: [email protected] riwe website Patrice Maynard, Director of Publications Collections of articles and news features on and Development current educational issues 38 Main Street • Chatham, NY 12037 teaching sensible science Phone: (518) 392-0613 • Fax: (518) 684-1588 Three one-week courses on teaching science in email: [email protected] elementary grades using a phenomenological Marianne Alsop, Librarian, Online Waldorf Library (OWL) approach www.waldorflibrary.org waldorf publications email: [email protected] Over 400 book titles, plus science kits, publicity Tom Stier, Webmaster of the RIWE website materials on Waldorf education www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org

Board of Directors Eugene Waldorf School San Francisco Waldorf School Arthur Zajonc, President Franz E. Winkler Center for Adult Santa Cruz Waldorf School Stephen Bloomquist, Treasurer Learning Santa Fe Waldorf School Natalie Adams, Secretary Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner Seattle Waldorf School Douglas Gerwin, Executive Director School Shining Mountain Waldorf School Frederick Amrine Green Meadow Waldorf School Sound Circle Center for Arts and Virginia Flynn Haleakala Waldorf School Anthroposophy Alice Groh Hartsbrook School Spring Garden Waldorf School Eva Handschin Hawthorne Valley School Summerfield Waldorf School Hansjoerg Hofrichter High Mowing School & Farm Elan Leibner Highland Hall Waldorf School Susquehanna Waldorf School Jost Schieren Honolulu Waldorf School Toronto Waldorf School Douglas Sloan Kimberton Waldorf School Vancouver Waldorf School Wilfried Sommer Les Enfants de la Terre Waldorf Academy Maine Coast Waldorf School Waldorf High School of Supporting Members Marin Waldorf School Massachusetts Bay Academe of the Oaks Monadnock Waldorf School Waldorf School at Moraine Farm Anchorage Waldorf School Pasadena Waldorf School Waldorf School of Garden City AWSNA Pine Hill Waldorf School Waldorf School of Lexington Camphill Special School-Beaver Run Portland Waldorf School Waldorf School of Orange County Center for Anthroposophy Prairie Hill Waldorf School Waldorf School of Pittsburgh Chicago Waldorf School Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto Waldorf School of Princeton Cincinnati Waldorf School Rudolf Steiner College Waldorf School of San Diego City of Lakes Waldorf School Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor Waldorf School of the Peninsula Denver Waldorf School Rudolf Steiner School, NY Waldorf Teacher Education Eugene East Bay Waldorf School Sacramento Waldorf School Washington Waldorf School Emerson Waldorf School

Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2017 • Volume 22 • #1 Research Bulletin

Research Bulletin

Volume XXII Spring/Summer 2017 Volume XXII • Number 1 • Number 1 Research Institute for Waldorf Education

RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR WALDORF PUBLICATIONS at the RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR WALDORF EDUCATION 38 Main Street Chatham, NY 12037 EDUCATIONWaldorf