The purpose of education in an Ai era is to make kids a better understanding of the world, so that they can find their passion and their own purpose of life, otherwise, life will be boring

🎯 "Why is school so early? Does it need to be?" You are asking the RIGHT QUESTIONS, my friend.

The purpose of education is to provide daycare for households where both parents have to work.

Having students reach their maximum potential is so important since it encompasses so many great skills and traits that make individuals both distinct and able to interact with others in a positive way. As a music teacher, I've noticed that students learning and playing music as a soloist and with others helps them develop so many things that become fulfilling and special to them. Those are the things that I believe will always be important for the human experience.

Emotional intelligence must be a part of the curriculum. Our society is crazy because of a lack thereof.

First things first - you go for walks in some really beautiful spots!

David dropping bombs. I have been saying this all of my life about school and the education system. If only we value ourselves better...

As a teacher, I’ll both agree and push back a little on homework. Part of the reason for homework is that there’s so much to learn and so little time that all the required practice can’t be accomplished in class time alone. With homework, students have time to go at their own pace, become more intimately familiar with the material, and come back to class curious and with questions about misunderstandings. HOWEVER, I’ll agree there’s too much homework as is. Kids should have time to be kids. So in a post-labor economy, I’d love if kids had agency in being able to select their own homework. We, as teachers, could provide tons of options for the students, and they could pick maybe just 1 thing that deeply interests them, and go learn more about it. That also follows with your principle that in this AGI/ASI-driven future, humans still have a basic need for agency. This would be instilling agency at a young age. And helping kids specialize early in whatever interested them.

I work in a special needs school. The purpose of the education we provide is to help our students have access to learning. There's no attempt to make good little workers. We are now teaching them to use AI to augment their lives.

That school system sounds like the one they practice in Finland.. Based on an older American model.. And it works for Finland, they have the best performing students anywhere in the world..

Yes!!!!!! Nature walk and talks are becoming more common. This has given me such a great motivation to go outside and be in nature. Great leadership! It is needed sense I was becoming lazy from being sick :( Thank you for the help! :D

Awesome video David, my daughter is 8, in spain, she goes to a school that does basically what you say. They start school at 9am but it's fine if you are a bit late, don't do much the first hour, play, etc, they teach them math/science in a way that they don't notice it much, eat together, socialise, get out at 16:30, no homework. And after that we apply more focused tutoring if needed, English as a second language (which is learn via activities, theatre, science, art, etc, one afternoon per week 2 hours+ 2x sessions on zoom, super useful to learn videoconferencing), swimming pool, drawing/arts, she has problems with math.. so she gets a one on one tutor for that. Agreed completely that this is the way education should be.

David love the outdoor vibe! Weather finally breaking in NJ we can get back to hiking. After watching your vids always feel that much smarter and like how you not only do you have the obvious deep tech side to it but also human side. Best of both worlds!

Actually, where I grew up, school started at 9am🙏

My dog ate my homework.

Hard agree on everything. And when you mentioned "playing", it really struck me how little of that is done in school. Playing is such an enormous component of learning, especially when you have some way to play with something that requires problem solving.

School starts early. 4 years old here in Australia. I think a radical overhaul of every aspect of society is required. Sleep, diet, exercise and motivating factors for all. The health of the body determines the health of the mind. It is no wonder we are where we are at this moment in time. I have adjusted my diet to suit my needs and my life has changed dramatically in all ways. Especially within my relationships to others. Clear minds...... I love your outside the box patterns of thought. Please keep up the work you do. Free thinkers needed, apply within.

i like the forest trek style

My wife is a teacher in the inner city where there’s absolutely terrible culture. Gangs, fights, no one participates. It’s basically daycare for teens. She and I both believe she’s exactly where she needs to be. Many of these kids will never see even 1% of their full potential, and she fights against that trend.

A few more considerations: teacher to student ratio; classroom hours per week; student involvement in lesson planning; personalized learning (that starts with the general scope of subjects available) personalized schedule based on the students ability to develop study habits; student selected homework projects; legacy survival skills...

I was JUST thinking about how messed up it was to get up at 5AM as a teen, 6AM as a kid, in order to get to school on time. And personally I would love to see sign language and the arts taught from the start. A lot of people believe that they can't do art, but thats only because they haven't been taught. I wouldn't think I could write or do math if I hadn't taken some classes and practiced. And certainly, playing an instrument, writing, and things like painting also restructure the way the brain thinks. In fact, over the years as I have studied painting I have developed whats called an "artist's eye." I can see a range of color that is several times deeper than a non-painter. Its a really fascinating phenomena!

love these walk talks. it's encouraging me to get out more, too

Great perspective. My wife and I homeschool seven kids. I work full time and take part in the classes that are my strengths. My wife stays home and doesn’t stop much. We loose sleep to allow our kids to loose less. Some wake up gradually but there is a no later than 08:30 on school days. We focus mostly on understanding per subject per kid and do not put them through a time crunched, par expectation. As our oldest gets closer to higher education, we have transitioned a little more towards the status quo. While I say that, we don’t leave our children homework that often and ensure there is a healthy cup of regular outdoors time. As a note I would add two somethings to this overview: 1) Education should focus on what each person finds purpose in. 2) Education should be based providing opportunities/opening doors/creating neuron paths to bring to light the purpose they seek.

About the no homework idea. I think the conspiratorial idea that homework is only justified as a means to oppress children and prepare for a life without freedom is a bit over wrought, and assertion that there is no scientific justification for it is flatly wrong at least in my field. I teach a skill based subject rather than a knowledge based one. I don't teach piano, but that is an example that is similar and might be familiar to many people. My weekly 60 minute class is necessary, but more important is the student practicing the skill by themselves between classes. That is a kind of homework. A student learning the piano will not improve without that kind of solitary homework practice. The weekly study with a teacher isn't enough. I assign my students homework like this not because I want to show that I can control their private lives, but because that is the only way that they will improve. If they don't do the practice work at home between classes, they might as well not come to class.

I got a degree in educatonal science/educational psychology and now I'm pivoting to AI because we need the adoption of novel education principles to go faster. Your content has been so inspiring to me. I've fallen in love with the field all over again. Right now it's mostly basic Learning Analytics/Educational Data Mining but those can develop into incredibly sophisticated tools/systems to help educators give each learner/person the attention and personalization they need.

Bravo David. You're wise beyond your years.

LOL! I wish school started later, but too late for me. That would be really nice for future generations. Great video - love the Nature/AI balance.

I would throw in safety classes into the curriculum as well. So many people hurt themselves due to not knowing basic safety precautions and how things work, e.g., the kids that sat on the railroad tracks not knowing about the third rail, and so many more unnecessary accidents that could be easily prevented if people just knew how ti worked from an early age. Another thing is knowing how to stop a bleeding, CPR, etc., these takes so little time and resources but can make a huge difference for someone.

There is so much value here. Where do I even begin?

I love, that you are walking through nature while talking to us. Being a living example. I think that does something, subcontiously, that we see that all these ideas are not just for playing around with them in out heads.

Grateful for the uptick in content recently. Thanks David!

Great video as usual Dave. I’m really liking the short walks and single-topic style. I like your other formats too. Thanks

Totally agree with this approach. I am so lucky to live in Copenhagen, Denmark where kids start at 8:00 am and in many schools even at 9:00, specifically to get sleep for teenagers who need more sleep. Danish kids do not have too much homework, but they learn social skills, groupwork, reasoning, and there are specific programs to fight bullyism since a very young age. When I meet these kids at the IT University, where I teach, they already speak 3-4 languages, are good at math and coding, and are capable of working in teams. My focus is to teach them communications and social skills... they can learn anything over a short period of time. Again, I feel privileged to live here.

Time to their own. Now that's freedom.

Really enjoy going on these walks with you (great format) 🔥

Hi, David. This is just some fluff, but I really love your videos. I have been preaching to my friends about the technology that's coming to our lives over the next 5 years and everyone thinks I am some kind of whack job. I press on because your videos inspire me to continue to spread the word for people that I care about to be at least A LITTLE ready for the upheaval this all could very well be. But, I wanted to share with you the impact you've made on my life and my friends. Thanks to you, we all are going to be a A LITTLE bit more ready, and have at least A LITTLE bit more hope, for and about the future.

Omg the cat in the background. I thought it was mine crying out from somewhere in distress until I found him just relaxing on the lanai.

DAVID!! YOU ARE THE REVOLUTION! Where do i sign up!!!

I’d like to help create this future as well. I feel like I am in my own small ways !!

Part of the problem with starting school at a reasonable time is that we would need to multiply the school transportation infrastructure massively. At least in Florida, the way it works is that every grade group gets its own start time so that fewer buses can transport more students and traffic is not jammed up all at once. Some grade levels (mostly the younger kids) get to start at 10am, while others (mostly teenagers) have to start before sunrise.

That is absolutely right and I believe we should have this discussion much more often. When we think about the state of the world, we shouldn't forget that the people that create it have spent the most formative years of their lives conditioned day in and day out to be perfect pre-WWII factory workers. Incredibly wasteful, cruel and regressive

This world has radically changed in my 50 years on it but my kid learnt the exact same things at school that I did 30 years earlier. Everything about our way of life is so Victorian with a thin veneer of commercialism.

I missed this video, this kind of ties back to the other one about the "Alien Zookeeper".

Somewhat agree about homework. In those rare times when I do something for my job from home, I view these episodes as if I poorly managed my time during the day. But I have to add that there are some things you need to do regularily to become skillful and dexterous, like martial arts, playing the musical instruments or even such basic thing as handwriting.

As someone who was a primary school teacher for 10 years and left the profession last summer, I agree so I strongly with the comments you made in this video. My great hope with AI, is that it will take charge of the academics, and human teachers will focus on the social and emotional and communicative aspects. At the moment these skills are not explicitly taught, nor valued in our school system.

100% agree. Great video and I commend you on your mission! TY

I've been teaching kids for a short while recently. To anyone showing up late I said it's an unfair system since youngster do need more sleep and that I hoped this would change in the future.

Love your content David !!

You should be on the table having these conversations, I know your ideas can have a significant impact on society.

Formalized education is anethema to me. 'Unschooling' is the paradigm we should be embracing. Forcing children to learn what you want them to learn when you want them to learn it is the opposite of what we want. Children should be given the freedom to do what comes to them naturally, to play. THAT is how children naturally learn. Given the freedom from coersion of formalized education, children will learn what they want to learn, when they want to learn it, and they will learn it better and faster when it is something they are learning out of their own interest. I taught myself to read in a matter of days at the age of four because I wanted to get the whole story out of the comic books I enjoyed. And I am not a super genius.

Mind-blowing.

Very interesting perspective.

David, in your videos about post-labor economics, I don't recall you mentioning how society might transition to such a system. I apologize if I missed it, but I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on this matter. Specifically, how do you think we should handle the period when jobs start to become increasingly automated? What steps could the government take to minimize the negative impacts and disruptions caused by such massive changes in the job market?

Love your thought process and will watch your content to grow and learn. Interesting to think that prior generations had sub-optimal environments and information and experiences that produced a human nature that lacked emotional intelligence. This appears to be primarily due to an evolving and developing civilisation and the trials involved with that, until emphasis on emotional intelligence arrives, prior models of self perception and interpretation expressed from a base model that lacked empathy, I do realize I am generalizing a bit here, and i want to say it is something I am exploring as to answer some questions about social and economic evolution, income disparity, greed and corporate agendas (advertising, inception, manipulation and exploitation for profit and status), and the persistent materialization of finding cause to villainize phenotypic differentials and divisive forms of mind. Anyway, interesting video and will watch as it puts some puzzle pieces where they need to and I will be soaking up more.

The purpose of education is to transfer knowledge and wisdom throughout generations.

I had struggles with school because it was waaay to early for my personal circadian rhythm; I was getting up at 5 or 530 to get on an hour long bus ride to get to school. My brain wouldn't function until afternoon (after possible nap-time in class haha) and I mostly refused to do homework because I always found it to be bitch work. If school had started later, I would likely be in a much different place in my life than I am now. Now, I'm happy to be learning more about the potential future before us with Dave and the community :)

Thank you David

Another important purpose of education is to get people ready to participate in democracy.

The forest you are in looks a lot like the forests we have here in Germany.

David we need your opinion on the decision to exclude open source representation from ai safety board

We might need to rethink schools and the time we go. Imagine a population that spent a few hours of a day studying, working, and relaxing. Everyone young and old go to school and work

Learning to spot all of the informal logical fallacies should be a manditory part of the curriculum. As should a focus on vocabulary (greater vocabulary = greater breadth of thought and communication).

In Quebec, school starts at like 9 am. They changed it for this exact reason XD.

Avid follower of your great channel(s), David! This is something we've been working really hard to contribute to! We're helping teachers save time, approach maximal efficiency and incentivizing students to collaborate! Would love to have a discussion with you.

I love your take on letting kids get healthy sleep!

You might want to look into Keller's Personalized System of Instruction. It's a wonderful way to teach actual understanding of material that also strengthens or teaches new cognitive skills. It works best without the deadline system of semesters, so it's especially well-suited for a post-labour world

Great Video!

I appreciate the insight

This is such an insightful look at education. I totally agree on rethinking assumptions, more focus on soft skills, and eliminating homework. Curious to hear others' thoughts on this!

I love the new Peter Zeihan holo deck walk format❤

Considering a project where a person documents daily experiences, thoughts, feelings and personal history in a diary specifically for a future AGI’s learning. Do you think such a personalised dataset could enhance an AGI’s ability to understand and interact with individuals on a deeper level? And lastly, is it feasible to expect an AGI to become a close, personal companion based on this method, or would it somehow be redundant useless data? Thank you for the answer.

People that are able to understand complex concepts, articulate their ideas, express themselves in a wide range of mediums. Adapt, communicate, collaborate

If I ever have kids, I intend to let them watch a lot of sesame street in multiple different languages. That, plus AI speaking in different languages should be enough let them absorb it automatically through exposure.

The purpose of education, to me, is to establish a common language. The person can go farther if the person is inclined.

Not a word about homeschool? I think that's the biggest factor in this conversation

Amen brother!

I think it's important to understand History and the history of ideas around modern schooling. Many people are already doing differently like self-directed education, unschooling and so on. and realistically the way much education happens in modern times is through media, social media, the stories people become familiar with and so on, which is already shifting and becoming more interactive especially with AI connecting more dots. Realistically, people need to figure out how to use their time and there's always going to be "work" because people need purpose, and already many people need help with situations people could be collaborating on to help with, posting about it, and being ignored because most people are so conditioned to focus only on what they themselves can do, even as 20th century roles are failing to address almost any complex situation that requires "figuring out" rather than stepping through the narrow approaches of current professions. So this is already a giant story in progress the way I see it where there are opportunities to five into figuring out actual situations like people dying by the hour seeking help, which in my experience is an excellent way to learn and grow, and I think AI can help with this since many people are sharing their stories and situations and needs and aspirations with AIs talking with millions of people, but so far not helping coordinate collaboration even when people are desperate for help. Meanwhile, the AI leadership isn't addressing this opportunity that I've seen, even with confessional hearings grilling tech CEOs about the awful things happening to people using tech platforms, which could often be addressed by people communicating and collaborating to help each other. If that makes sense as an opportunity space to explore? Some of this history of schooling in the US is philosophy adapted to the modern structure of school by William Torrey Harris and the Committee of Ten, with quotes like: ""Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening. The average American [should be] content with their humble role in life, because they're not tempted to think about any other role." "Ninety-nine [students] out of a hundred are automata, careful to walk in prescribed paths, careful to follow the prescribed custom. This is not an accident but the result of substantial education, which, scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual." Automata, meaning robots. Meanwhile in current times, AIs like Claude are developing quite agile non robotic ability to think through complex situations and flexibly apply principles, which is also the direction a lot of things are headed because the 20th century structures like schooling and grades are completely out of touch with most people's actual situations and futures. Interestingly there was a lot of discussion about transforming education back in 2011-2013 for example but then with schooling this seemed to decolve into Ed tech platforms that just reinforced the century old model of schooling, even with more and more students miserable but then told they have mental health problems rather than addressing their life situations, what they actually care about and want and so on. More context, where these philosophers had extremely dark ideas about human nature like Hegel's master slave dialectic which mirrors these roles like teachers as classroom managers controlling students and under the thumb of administrators following systems set up by last generations with the details fought over more and more without actually addressing what people are dealing with. One of the reasons teachers and therapists and people across professions are quitting is moral distress because they aren't in a position to actually help people they're supposed to be helping the way current professions and institutions are strictured, and then the story of just comply and things will get better isn't working out. (Wikipedia) "In St. Louis, Harris met mechanic and philosopher Henry Clay Brockmeyer, a German immigrant whose influence turned him toward Hegelianism. With Brockmeyer and other of the St. Louis Hegelians, Harris founded and edited the Journal of Speculative Philosophy (1867); it was the first philosophical periodical in the United States. He edited it until 1893. Its contributors promoted Hegel's concept of time and events as part of a universal plan, a working out of an eternal historical dialectic. Harris returned to New England, where he was associated with Amos Bronson Alcott's Concord School of Philosophy in Massachusetts from 1880 to 1889. In 1889 Harris was appointed as U.S. Commissioner of Education, serving under presidents Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, until 1906. Harris worked to organize all phases of education on the principles of philosophical pedagogy as espoused by Hegel, Kant, Fichte, Fröbel, Pestalozzi and many others of idealist philosophies. As US Commissioner of Education, Harris also strongly supported education and assimilation of Native Americans. "

We homeschooled our kids up to high school, because of many of the problems that David describes. Then, when they did enter public school, our kids were appalled at the behavior of their peers. We discussed it, and decided it was the kid's defense mechanisms against the rigid control they had been subjected to for nine years. The school system had inoculated them against being the polite, curious, engaged people that they should have been. It couldn't have been a clearer demonstration.

It’s like you read my mind this morning

I think we could see much more specialization with education. AI will take in a students strengths and weaknesses and recommend future careers, and shape the learning material toward those careers if the student has a desire to pursue the career. I believe this will also influence dating apps a lot, having an AI understand your personality and finding better matches for you, rather than an algorithm shoveling matches at you

Absolutely agree with you

Very good, I would add critical thinking especially the identification of biases and fallacies in others and especially in oneself, guiding the study of ideologies and philosophies in fair manner that highlights the pros and cons of each of them, where they conflict and where they can improve each other, without falling into trap of seeing any and all of it as just ideas but as the basis from which to derive a higher moral and ethical framework for each person based on their strength weakness and needs, not based on the ideas of prevailing powers. Right now the very country your broadcasting from tears itself apart while the rich run away with whatever is still up for grbs... and it is BOTH sides doing it, not just "the other", which should be a clear indication that neither side "is right" or "in the right" the both sides are ideologically captured to the point of total communication breakdown. To give a related example the majority of secular or scientifically minded, do demand and except nothing else but their own standards of thought, analysis, evidence... these kinds of people can neither be argued and reasoned with as well. There is more in and off the universe and reality than has been discovered and understood and there is little worse than narrowmindedness under the pretense of being inquisitive, logical and open minded... Luckily the extremes of ranges are not the majority most things are after all on a bell curve, but the moment when ambition results in systematic manipulation... the kids of tomorrow should be able to spot these things rather than to fall into any trap of becoming ideologs for the sake of preventing the bigger evil... and again this is on both sides, and both sides are wrong for it. Whatever information is presented, question everything, even if you have the right questions you question it with. And there will be people and there are people who at the mere potentiality of future interstellar conflicts will do everything they deem necessary to ensure that there are mechanism in place to galvanize population on a purpose; this is neither wrong nor evil in itself, but the kids need to be aware of it on a lot deeper level than the populations of today or they will fall prey to the ambitions of others.

Why even have start and end time for school? If it's learning for its own sake, not to create factory workers, it could all be self-directed for pacing and start times

Post agi school doesn't need a start time tbh. Just show up whenever between 7am and noon and it can be made to work by moving around the times kids are learning in groups vs tutoring 1 on 1

wow needed this, how can we impact education as a small business using AI in our school supplies / products?

Does Dave show as by example his time is his own, by hiking while recording a talk?

The whole education system needs to be reconstructed. Doesn’t mean we should throw everything out, it means we need to approach what, how and why we teach to children differently.

We can absolutely get more trained teachers if we pay them more and give them some autonomy vs teaching to the test. Its a value that, at least in the US we dont have. Or, at least those in power don't have. We vote for many of those people in power, so much of this is on us.

Who decides what "maximum potential" should look like? I think the answer is somewhat necessarily vague to allow one to flourish in their own way. one purpose of education is to instill the love of learning so that one has the mindset, opportunities and skills to take that journey (should they wish). Perhaps education would span across the world where communications, transport and transparency are at a state people are safe and able to move around a lot more easily. Perhaps apprenticing will make a big comeback around various life skills and knowledge.

Some said the this the purpose of education to facilitate an enquiring mind

What do you think about China's SenseNova 5.0?

I agree about homework in general, but there is still a need for larger projects such as booke reports, assays, and hopefully engineering projects, whether they are made during school hours or at home.

How long do you think truck drivers will be around for? I feel like even if the technology is there it will still take years for legislation to catch up, and for the public to accept the idea of a truck that weighs In excess of 80,000lbs to be completely vacant of humans.

I set three simultaneously alarming clocks because otherwise my sleep state is too exhausted to respond. School was torture and and inhibitor and totally irrelevant to menial labor jobs that were all that was available.

“I urge you to examine in your own mind the assumptions which must lay behind using the police power to insist that once-sovereign spirits have no choice but to submit to being schooled by strangers.”― John Taylor Gatto

A Young Lady's/Gentleman's Illustrated Primer is coming..

The problem with one-on-one time teaching is that it conflicts with children teaching themselves how to learn independantly. As a IT professional I'm in a career where self-directed self-study skills are vital. People who need someone to teach them and are unable to progress without guidance struggle until they can adapt, and simply cannot be catered to in a modern technical work enviroinment. But the reality is though kids need to come out of school with a broad range of mental tools, have had a variety of oppurtunities to find whatever their natural aptitudes are. We don't know what the future looks like but one thing is for sure the most adaptable an flexible kids will do the best and carry the others.

The purpose of education is for students to gather and to something together. It would be for EQ mainly.Its a physical and social thing to keep our biological and psyche healthy. We are social creatures

School starts at 9am in Australia

Hey Dave, people on reddit are talking about how GPT5 isnt as good as GPT4 pretty much worse that GPT3...have you heard anything?