Innovation suppressed

Madam,

I recently came across a speech by Neil deGrasse Tyson on the difference between knowledge and thinking.

It was not remarkable but nonetheless like most things, it struck a chord. So before I wrote today’s article I went through the speech a couple of times.

What struck particular note with me was his realisation of society rewarding knowledge more than original thinking. He says he once wanted to take his younger sister out for a meal. He asked where she wanted to go and she retorted ‘what choice do we have'?

SYSTEM

In any case this is no qualmbut Tyson says this hit him hard. He realised that the educational had brought his sister up, and many others, in such a way that they had to read through multiple choice questions. Original thinking had been left to the one asking the questions.

The reason I had to go through this speech is my pondering of how over the years innovation has moved from peanut butter, automobiles, the telephone, et cetera to coding, artificial intelligence (AI) and Bitcoins.

Tyson says we have been modelled in such a way that we do not reward original thinking even if the answer is not far off.

He makes an example where three participants take part in a Spelling Bee Contest. When asked what the spelling of ‘cat’ is the first participant spells it ‘c-a-t', which is correct. The second says ‘k-a-t', which is wrong. The third answers ‘x-q-w', which is marked equally as wrong as the ‘k-a-t'.

However, the problem lies in there not being a better wrong as the Dictionary classifies words according to phonetics, not considering background or language.

Tyson says we live in a society where right is right and wrong is wrong even if some answers are arguably better wrong.

CONCEPTIONS

Thus we have abandoned parts of our mind which come up with original thought. We have considered knowledge as final rather than being a process to determine and challenge pre-existing conceptions.

I really enjoyed this speech as it opened my eyes to pre-existing conceptions. Like innovation it seems we tend to downplay our originality as inferior, thinking better answers come from outside or classifying a radical thinker as ‘bamloyile' or ‘sowuhlanya'. We were in existence way before settlers arrived on our land thus our ideals and norms were not outdated or old-fashioned. They were the way.

We are who we are. However, we have allowed ourselves to be brainwashed by thinking our cultural practices are absurd. Gone are the days when we used to sit around a fire and impart knowledge among the kids who are sitting at home.

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