Recortar, podar, esquilar

Estimado editor,

escribo esta carta para expresar mi opinión sobre un asunto que desde hace unos meses despierta opiniones acaloradas, comentarios crispados y miradas suspicaces.  Escribo esta carta, pues, para hacer mi contribución al marasmo de ideas, réplicas, contraréplicas, humo y nieblas que envuelven el tema de los recortes presupuestarios en las arcas públicas.

Debo decir, para empezar y como defensa preventiva, que adoro recortar.  Cabellos, uñas de manos y pies, malas hierbas, arbustos y matojos, setos y céspedes, hilos colgantes, lana, cables pelados, hojas, folios y otros papeles, cartulinas, celofanes y pegatinas, cromos, estampas, sellos, láminas de cartón.  No me den ustedes una radial o amoladora, palabras ambas que no aparecen en el diccionario con el significado que aquí tienen, que no encontrarán baldosa, azulejo, barra o barrote que me ponga freno.  Se me podría, pues, considerar un recortador nato, o de nacimiento.  No me cabe duda alguna de que mi genoma ha sido hábilmente recortado desde mi concepción, y que ese recorte es la razón de mi rara habilidad para manejar con tino, tesón, tenacidad y talento tijeras y tenazas para cortar, recortar y recontracortar.

Estos son mis antecedentes, esta es mi disposición.  Habría que ser corto de entendederas para no adivinar ya que mi opinión sobre los recortes presupuestarios ordenados por los gobiernos es decididamente negativa.  Tímidos, gazmoños, timoratos y mojigatos me parecen a mí.  Denme a mí unas buenas tijeras y dejaré esos presupuestos suaves, lisos, planos y pulidos, sin irregularidad alguna, sin arruga que sobresalga aquí o allá.  ¿Sanidad, transporte, educación?  Naderías.  Denme a mí las tijeras, dénmelas y les dejaré un erial, un solar desierto, huero y mocho, una esfera de vidrio brillante y transparente, hueca y vacía, perfecta.

Sin más, y con temor de haber alargado demasiado esta carta, me despido de usted con un breve y cordial saludo,

R. N.

Teacherbots (video)

ENGLISH

 

CASTELLANO

 

CATALÀ

Sheela-Na-Gig – PJ Harvey

Teacherbots

Once upon a time…

Dear editor,

it is a well known fact that during the last years a huge number of computation based technologies have been created and developed.  These technologies allow to easily perform tasks as video, audio or text edition, long range synchronous or asynchronous communication, interactive search and processing of information, etc.  The number of professional fields that take advantage of these technologies is increasing everyday in such a way that it is almost impossible to imagine a modern, dynamic and efficient professional unable to use at least some of these new technologies.  However, there is an important field that definitely has not been receptive at all to these advances: teaching.  In this letter I would like to present my opinion regarding the use of new technologies to teach.  Although this opinion may seem extreme to some of your readers, I think that a deep in consideration can only lead to the conclusion presented in this letter.

It is often said that teaching is a hard and frustrating job.  Teachers usually suffer from light mental diseases like stress or depression.  There is no doubt that the main cause of these failures arises from the biological nature of most of the teachers.  Advanced researches regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI) recently published demonstrate that a Perception Selector (PS) subroutine inserted in the AI main code would provide the AI with the immunity to these diseases.  Besides, it is obvious that the use of modern computation technologies would be something intrinsic and natural for an AI trying to teach.  A suitable AI would design, perform and evaluate computer and Internet based activities as if it was the only way to teach, which means that an AI would perform its work in the right way.  And now here it is my proposal: teachers, human teachers I mean, should be substituted by well programmed AIs.  Not only the AIs perform their work in a more efficient, neutral and fair way, but also they are able to resist the health difficulties that arise from such a hard job.  A suitable AI running inside a silicone-titanium based body could be the perfect solution to most of the problems that modern teaching has to face nowadays.  These teacherbots would be a solid step forward through a new age of teaching.

There is no doubt that some would argue that a huge amount of jobs would be lost if teaching disappeared as a profession.  However, we have to take into account that a great number of technicians would have to be employed in order to do the routine maintenance of the AI software and hardware.  In any case, the enormous number of possibilities that lie beyond the use of these AIs forces us to seriously consider their implementation on behalf of our children’s education.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Tobor

Still Alive – Jonathan Coulton