As a consequence, the new masters of our universe are people who are essentially only half-educated. They have had no exposure to the humanities or the social sciences, the academic disciplines that aim to provide some understanding of how society works, of history and of the roles that beliefs, philosophies, laws, norms, religion and customs play in the evolution of human culture.
He is correct that many tech giants focused on technology, and where he says without proper study of humanities, he should say: "character and spiritual formation."
“He is correct that many tech giants focused on technology, and where he says without proper study of humanities, he should say: “character and spiritual formation.”
Education in history, economics, philosophy, and the other subjects in the humanities can play a large role in that.
Every now and again a scientist realizes that his education is incomplete and dives into philosophy (e.g., The Dancing Wu Li Masters). When they do, they waste a lot of time tangled up with every error you learn about in a semester of Philosophy 101. They always seem to assume they’re going to be as smart in philosophy as they are in science, and they never are.
Gates might not be such a mewling leftard if he had been required to study the history of the 20th century, if his education had turned him into a person who would read The Bell Curve, the Black Book of Communism, the works of Thomas Sowell, Barzun’s Dawn to Decadence, etc.
I’m not even sure that he has the candlepower to really comprehend that sort of thing.
The author is slightly more nuanced than that.
As a consequence, the new masters of our universe are people who are essentially only half-educated. They have had no exposure to the humanities or the social sciences, the academic disciplines that aim to provide some understanding of how society works, of history and of the roles that beliefs, philosophies, laws, norms, religion and customs play in the evolution of human culture.
He is correct that many tech giants focused on technology, and where he says without proper study of humanities, he should say: “character and spiritual formation.”
These people eat information from their staffs at a far greater rate than any college class can hope to produce. They may be pompous. They may be wrong. But college would not have made them more right, or more humble. And those at the Guardian have no perch of authority to ascertain truth or wisdom. Thats the problem with being elite. Its a degree you give yourself.
Except that colleges have not been teaching "character and spiritual formation" for decades now. What is labeled "humanities" now, is really "indoctrination into political correctness"
Of course he operates under the assumption that if they had finished college they would have seen the unintended consequences of what they invented and not invented it. Which is operating in strong ignorance of history, how technology gets used, and of course the fact that NOBODY (including him) saw this coming.