Not too long ago I read "Hackers and Painters" and I really enjoyed it. The author, Paul Graham, has a blog. I really like what he says. Ideas like his have often appeared in my head. Weeks ago I decided to close my Facebook account. I couldn't put into words the exact reason. While addictive, I just couldn't find how it makes my life any better. I wondered what useful things did I get out of investing my time on Facebook. Reading his article helped me see the situation a bit clearer: http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html
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If I didn't have a place to return to, I could only go forward.
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Even I haven't had a TV for 10 years, sometimes I watch it when I visit my family. For a long time my favorite program has been "Redes". It talks about science and includes interesting interviews with scientists around the world. Until very recently it was available only in Spanish. Here you can find a full archive to watch online. Now many episodes are also available in English. During this visit to Spain I found another program I like very much. Actually, it's not a program but a TV channel that continuously airs English lessons. I find one of its presenters, Mr. Vaughan, very good. He knows how to make it interesting. You can also watch the episodes online: http://www.aprendeingles.com/ It's meant for Spanish speaking people. English has given me the chance to travel, communicate with people from all around the world and work in foreign companies. It can help people find a job in other countries if they can't find one in Spain. And if you never heard of TED, I recommend visiting http://www.ted.com It's full of inspiring videos with subtitles available in many languages. You can activate them below the video. Maybe try the "Most favorited all-time" category. TED is full of exciting things to learn.
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Yesterday I posted a link on Facebook about studying online for free. The material in these free courses is provided by the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), one of the most respected universities in this planet.
I think education is the solution to most (if not all) problems humans have. Violence, hunger and poverty could be things of the past with the right education in place. Education could improve the well being of all life forms around us. The kind of education I think of would not be so favourable for capitalism, since it would show that each object we buy pollutes the world, and that buying objects can provide a short moment of happiness, but learning to enjoy free things gives us an infinite resource of joy. It would teach about being creative, about learning to think, about finding solutions, about human interaction and feelings. Since this kind of education would not benefit capitalism, it will not probably come from governments and schools, but from people. Fortunately many people share and devote their lives to working in projects that benefit people (instead of companies). I just read this article about some people trying to make free school books in the USA: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/technology/01ping.html?_r=1 It mentions two places where you can access free school books: http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome and http://about.ck12.org/ It makes me happy to hear of such projects. Projects like http://www.drumbeat.org/p2pu-webcraft, or http://laptop.org/ . I share the vision of Nicholas Negroponte mentioned in this recent letter.
