Yoav Ben-Dov
Non-European traditions and 21st century education:
Towards the computerized spinning wheel?
(abstract, Aug 1998)
When considering possible links and influences between science teaching and the historical development of science, or history and philosophy in general, one should also ask how these are influenced by the changing perspectives of science education today. Indeed, science education is always realized, and takes its means and goals, in a social, cultural, technological and economical context. As our society today is undergoing major changes in all these fields, which center largely around the technological sphere, the relations of science education with other fields may also be seen in a new light.
In a nutshell, the dominant technologies of the last centuries were material technologies, which were mainly concerned with moving pieces of matter around and shaping them in desired forms. Today, however, it seems that information technology is quickly becoming predominant. The passage to information technology involves radical changes in many fields, for example in the distribution of products, which is no longer restricted by the conservation of matter. Also, information technology concerns not only configurations of atoms and electrons, but the meaning and value of the final product to the person using it as well. Thus, information technology products cannot be completely objectified, and their value is dependent on the subjective preferences and needs of the "user".
There are claims that this change has far-reaching consequences in many spheres of society and culture. We shall not dwell too much on these, but to get an idea of what it may involve, we note only the influence on the distribution of economic strength. Material technology and its underlying mechanistic paradigms have given much power to modern centralized institutions, which wiped out traditional modes of life and production in almost every country. In India, this was the tension which Mahatma Gandhi's "spinning wheel" economy tried to face, as an affirmation of the value of small scale home industry against the centralized powers of the big mechanical factory.
Gandhi's home industry model was motivated by social and human values. However, in the context of market economy based on material technology, it has its price, as it involved a technological step backwards, from modern technology to pre-modern technology. Thus, although the spinning wheel small-scale industry was more harmonious with the ways of life of traditional Indian society, it found itself in a disadvantageous position when having to compete with the more advanced mechanistic and centralized system of production.
The advent of information technology radically changes this situation. Already today one can see the emergence of a new way of production - the decentralized software home industry, which can successfully compete from remote places and on low budgets. Indeed, like the spinning wheel, a computer with an internet link can function effectively in a village house, but at the same time, it can also be part of an innovative software project. Moreover, in this way, production based on advanced technology can reach the rural areas without necessitating major environmental damage and violent disruption of traditional ways of life. Thus, information technology makes it possible to implement Gandhi's home industry vision without having to compromise the competitional edge of up-to-date technology.
How does this relate to science teaching and history? Traditionally, one thinks of the value of science to society in terms of scientific material technology. Thus, to enable a country to develop economically and geopolitically, its future generation should be trained into predominantly mechanistic modes of thought. For this, one usually considers links and influences relating science teaching with the development of mechanistic science, that is, exclusively within the framework of modern western history of science.
The advent of information technology may change this perspective. In order to think and act effectively in an information-based technological context, it is possible that one should look for useful links and influences not only in modern western history of science, but also in non-European and traditional cultures. Note that for this purpose, it is irrelevant whether or not these cultures played a direct historical role in the development of modern science. In the context of science education, useful links do not have to assume strict historical causation, but rather similarity of thought.
As examples for such links, we consider some analogies between, on one hand, ways of thinking which developed in traditional Indian civilization, and on the other hand, new developments in information technology and contents associated with it. These include, for example:
- rejection, in Indian tradition, of exclusively materialistic way of thinking in favor of experience-oriented, subjective and user-dependent techniques, like yoga and meditation.
- analogies between new concepts which developed around computerized science, like network and fractals, and similar themes in traditional Indian cosmology, myths, sacred art and architecture.
On first glance, such links may look as superficial comparisons, which have no deep value. However, If one considers the development of the new artifacts of information technologies, mainly personal computing and the internet, one finds a prevalence of references to concepts and themes borrowed from Indian traditions, mainly through the "new age" movements of the 1960's onwards. This means first, that the people who developed these artifacts were previously exposed to Indian themes, and second, that they considered these themes as somehow significant for their technological work, so that, for example, they would name the final product after an Indian god or symbol.
As many examples of such references exist - from the Lotus spreadsheet through Vishnu and Kali web-servers to Shiva LAN software - it may be worthwhile to look further into these links, which may hold some keys to productivity in the field of information technology. Thus, scientific education motivated by society's needs in the age of information technology may find it useful to use links and influences not only from the history of western modern science, but also from other cultures and currents of human heritage.
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