"We Are the Web"

is the title of this article by Kevin Kelly. When people ask me about my "faith", I say I am a Transhumanist. Visions such as Kelly's excite me. I fully agree with him that we are living at a cusp in the trajectory of human history. I can already see this in my life. I spent a little too much time on the Web and I can feel the pangs of withdrawal symptoms when I cannot connect with it! Humanity has embarked on a grand project to imbue inert matter with intelligence (through embedded chips, sensors and such). Ray Kurzweil - one of my heroes - sees no end to this process until the entire universe is sentient! It reminds me of the final books in the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov and gives me the goosebumps.

So what has this got to do unschooling? In a very real way, my kids are living in a different world. They are growing up with this always-on global intelligence, and their sense of what is available and possible in completely different from that of the adults. Supriya already says, "Let's ask the Internet." Practically all of humanity's knowledge is available to everybody with an Internet connection. Not only that, but you can get it in whichever learning mode you need. You learn best through listening? No problem. Pictures? Sure. In such a world, there is no value to be added or premium to be earned (in any kind of tokens, money or otherwise) for traditional rote learning. Very few things about what a kid "needs to learn" are valid anymore.

How my kids earn their livelihoods and fulfill their potentials are going to depend on how well they learn. We have seen huge changes in the global economy over the last 20 years. Yet the pace of change is accelerating and the next 20 are going to bring vastly more surprises. Manisha and I want our kids to learn to learn - or, more precisely, not forget to learn. That's where unschooling comes in.