[TheForge] [OT RANT] Re: The science of driving.

[Mike Spencer]

> So here's a proposal: Write a manual of the science of driving.
> Include all topics from physics, etc., that would aid a driver
> understand why he should or should not behave in such and such a
> manner.

Well, Bruce, I admit to being a troglodyte geek and Aaron admits to
being a "twisted math weenie".  Welcome to the club.

Normal people, even not-stupid ones, do not WANT to understand stuff.
They do not RTFM.  If compelled to RTFM, they will memorize for the
exam.  But "understand" is not typically on the agenda.

In the late 80s, everybody who was anybody was getting a personal
computer.  All those IBM XTs and 286 PC-ATs came with 3 or 4 boxed
ringbinders of manual.  In (an estimated) 0.002% of locations, these
manuals could be found, frayed and soiled, at the bottom of a messy
pile of advanced technical books.  In the remainder of locations --
body shops, homes and university offices alike -- they were on a high
shelf, spotless, pristine and covered in dust.

The computer makers got smart and don't even bother to print those
manuals any more.

You can get people to memorize misleading slogans such as "There's no
such thing as centifugal force; it's centrepital force" and argue about
it all night over beer but they don't "understand" it.  A similar case
occurs when the grade school kid says, "Me and him went to the
movies."  Teacher repeats over and over, "No, No! 'He and I went to
the movies'".  Kid grows up and says things like, "That was a new
experience for she and I."  Memorized the rule/slogan under duress.
Never understood the grammar.  And damned well not going to let
anybody tell him different.  Er, differently. :-)

I can't see it unless, as Andy suggests, you forget about doing good
and make a mercenary, political project out of it.

Okay, enough negativity, eh?   How about a video?  

I needed a tooth crowned.  My dentist's assistant was assigned to
explain the new ceramic crown technology to me.  She took me to
another room where I was ready to engage in some advanced clinical
dialogue.  But she flicked on a video display, pointed me at it and
stood aside.  I was so nonplussed and abashed that it was over before
I recovered my wits enough to to say, "But, but, but...".  Suddenly I
realized that this approach to "informed consent" was a way to make
the patient feel like (s)he understood the procedure without actually
having to confront the the fact that (s)he had no interest in really
understanding it nor the dentist any interest in struggling with the
hopeless task of engendering such understanding in patients ignorant
of elementary physiology. [1]

Video, I gather, is now the norm for "explaining" things.  Watch the
evening news and "understand" the world.  Watch "I am Joe's Root
Canal" and understand the interaction of neural sensitivity and
haemodynamics in tooth pulp.

If you really want to do this, you have to think of it as television,
marketing and public relations.  You need to research Edward Bernays
and his (I hesitate to say) intellectual heirs.  You need to learn
what substance can and what cannot be conveyed to -- imprinted on --
someone who is in the trance state engendered by television watching.
Your corporate sponsors, should you find some, will seem to you to be
aliens from another planet bent on senseless evil which they will
meretriciously explain to you in glowing but businesslike terms.  Gak!

Back into my badger hole...

- Mike

[1] My dentist is really very good and likes patients to ask technical
    questions.  We had the technical discussion later.  He even
    apologized for subjecting me to the video.


-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer@tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

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