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< Back Trickle-Down Economics David Cowles Aug 1, 2024 “Forests have turned ‘trickle-down’ economics, literally, into an art form. By sharing resources, trees ensure that the tide will raise all boats.” Economists, politicians, ideologues, and demagogues all love to disparage trickle-down economics . The phrase itself is pejorative. On the other hand, if someone says, “A rising tide lifts all boats,” we’re ok with that. Denotatively, they are saying the same thing; connotatively, they are expressing polar opposites. Dispensing with the aquatic metaphors, the real issue here is the relationship between the health of the economy as a whole and the well-being of its individual members. We are still living in the shadow of Karl Marx. We like to pretend that economics is a zero sum game and that one player’s gain must come at the expense of other players’ losses. But economics is not poker. The game has a wide range of possible outcomes in which the total wealth available for distribution is variable just as is each player’s share of that wealth. For example, let’s assume we have an economy with just 10 participants. Our job is to divide the wealth in 10 ways. For the sake of the arithmetically challenged (me), let’s assume that the estimated total wealth is $55. We could just give every player 1/10th of the total. That’s socialism. Or we could give 9 players the minimum ($1) and direct all residual wealth ($46) to the one remaining participant. That’s robber baron capitalism. Between these two extremes there are more than 8,000,000 possible ways to divide up a $55 pot so that every player receives a whole dollar amount (no pennies). To make matters worse, or better, there is no guarantee, indeed no likelihood, that the total pot will be the same under different distribution scenarios. Economies are organic. We believe that distribution impacts production. One distribution scheme will produce more aggregate wealth than another; we just can’t agree on which one gets us to the max! Experience has taught us that neither of the two extremes (socialism or robber baron capitalism) is likely to maximize the pot. We imagine that there is a sweet spot somewhere between these 2 extremes; finding that sweet spot is what keeps economists employed. Not that ‘more’ should be the only criterion! Justice is at stake here as well. But once again, we don’t necessarily agree on what’s just. Is it ‘just’ that everyone gets the same regardless of their relative effort and contribution? Or is it ‘just’ that some players get only the ‘minimum’, even if their contribution is marginal? There’s a lot to consider. One branch of economics concerns itself solely with production. What is the distribution formula best calculated to maximize production? Another branch looks at the social implications of the distribution scheme. What is the cost of strict meritocracy? We rely on professional economists to quantify our alternatives but we alone, acting through our chosen political representatives, can balance values to make the final decision. Not sure? Need help? Let’s ‘phone a friend’. Does it matter that our friend is a fungus? Homo is not the only civilization on this planet. Single and multi-species ecosystems are all around us. The Serengeti has settled on a different distribution formula than the Mariana Trench. Each has worked out its own algorithm for maximizing production subject to its unique set of ‘ethical’ constraints. Our forests (plants and fungi) offer a particularly successful example of a non-human economy. Vegetation covers most of the habitable zones on Earth. Absent human intervention, trees can live hundreds of years, fungi thousands. While forest life is not conflict free, sorry Snow White, it comes close. How does it work? Fungus runs the show. The ‘wood-wide-web’ links trees of the same and different species in a resource and information sharing network. Are predator insects in the area? News travels from one end of the forest to the other, quickly and efficiently, so that trees can deploy their chemical armor. Are we in for a drought? Or a blizzard? The entire forest prepares together. Does a particular tree ‘look’ a bit peaked? The fungal network will divert water and life saving minerals to that member. If nature favors a particular tree with great height, exposure to sunlight, and a healthy root system, that tree will seek out opportunities to share its wealth, first to its ancestors and descendants, then to the entire forest. How come? Is fungus better than us? Maybe, but the forest has also run its own algorithms. It has determined that an unhealthy forest is an existential threat to even its most robust members. Likewise, every plant, every fungus is most likely to flourish in a healthy environment. Forests get what we often don’t – we’re all in this together! Forests have turned ‘trickle-down’ economics, literally, into an art form. By sharing resources, trees ensure that the tide will raise all boats. Next time human society faces an economic dilemma it would do well to ask, “WWFD?” (What would the forest do?) Keep the conversation going. 1. Click here to comment on this TWS. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs. Keep the conversation going. Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.

< Back Bacteria Are People Too “I’ll bet a bacterium could hold its own in any Parisian café. They don’t need to study existentialism at the Sorbonne; they live it every day.” David Cowles “If I only had a brain,” intones Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz. Of course, it turns out that Scarecrow already had a brain…or didn’t need one. Same for bacteria! These unicellular organisms first appeared on Earth about 4 billion years ago. Today, they cover the planet and fill nearly every ecological niche. All life on Earth is either bacterial or evolved from bacteria. These unicellular organisms survive, or can quickly evolve to survive, in almost any environment, no matter how hostile. Like us, they can even alter their environment to make it more habitable. Originally anaerobic on an oxygen-poor planet, prokaryotic (no nucleus) bacteria merged to form the first eukaryotic cells (with nucleus) which in turn formed plants that produced the oxygen that bacteria later learned to breathe. Wrap your noodle around that one! But before there was sufficient atmospheric oxygen, bacteria used iron to power its cellular processes. “If I don’t have blue, I use red.” (Picasso) Bacteria are as close as nature has come to creating a ‘quantum of life’, i.e., the minimal configuration of molecules required to support phenomena we recognize as ‘living’. No surprise then that we view bacteria as irremediably stupid. “Dumb as dirt!” Of course…they are dirt! But how is it then that bacteria compete with us and certain insects for dominion over Earth? Like Scarecrow, they have no organelle that performs the functions we associate with a ‘brain," but like Scarecrow, they apparently don’t need one. They have devised other ways to ‘think’. Everything wants to think. Sum ergo Cogito (I am; therefore, I think). But thinking does not require neurons; it can happen using a multitude of physical pathways. If things want to think, they’ll find a way to do so. Bacteria don’t need brains to think, just as they don’t need sex to reproduce. They freely swap genes with one another; no ‘dinner and a movie’ required. People say that Anarchism is an impractical political ideology. For all its theoretical appeal, it simply won’t work. Really? Bacterial society is paradigmatically anarchic, and it’s worked for 4 billion years. There’s no whiff of authority. Like unsupervised kids on a 1950s playground, bacteria work stuff out…by themselves. For 200 years, from 1250 to 1050 BCE, “Israel had no king; everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21: 25) When circumstances required a coordinated response, charismatic leaders called ‘judges’ emerged ad hoc , and with the consent of the elders and the people, they provided the temporary leadership needed to address the immediate challenge… and then they returned home to tend their flocks . But Israel succumbed to the siren song of authoritarianism. They wanted to be ‘like other nations’. They wanted a king…and they got one: How did that work out for them? So, how do bacteria think? We still have a lot to learn, but s cientists have just discovered that bacteria can create memories by regulating the amount of iron in their systems. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin found that bacteria use iron levels to store information about different behaviors that can then be activated in response to certain stimuli. “Bacteria don’t have brains, but they can gather information from their environment, and…they can store that information and quickly access it later for their benefit,” said Souvik Bhattacharyya. Most intriguingly, bacteria pass along that information to their progeny, down at least to the fourth generation. Humans pass along information in two ways: long-term via genes and short-term via culture. Bacteria have it the other way around. They modify their genes on an almost daily basis, but their ‘culture’ preserves memories for at least four generations. And we struggle to pass info down just one generation…to our children. Bottom line, on any ‘species neutral’ AP History exam, my money’s on the bacterium. Single, free-floating bacteria have naturally varying levels of iron. Bacterial cells with lower levels of iron tend to swarm, while the bacteria that form biofilms have higher iron levels. You may be forgiven for thinking that cells with low iron gravitate toward ‘swarming’ while their high iron cousins prefer ‘filming’; after all, you think that smarter people become doctors while less smart people work at McDonald’s. But you’re wrong…on all counts! Any bacterium can swarm or film; it just needs to ‘decide’ what it wants to do and adjust its iron content accordingly. When iron levels are low, bacteria form fast-moving swarms to search for new sources of iron. When iron levels are higher, bacteria are more likely to feel satisfied, so they stay put and form films. “I know who I am, and I know that I can be whoever I want to be.” I’ll bet a bacterium could hold its own in any Parisian café. They don’t need to study Existentialism at the Sorbonne; they live it every day. So hats off to our bacterial cousins… and don’t forget, they are people too. Keep the conversation going! 1. Click here to comment on this TWS. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs. Share Previous Next

< Back 03/15/2022 For 25 years, give or take, you learn to live. My mother called it ‘learning to be people’. “David,” she would say, “You’re just not people!” And she was right; I wasn’t. Then, after 25 years of learning to live, of learning to be ‘people’, you finally are ‘people’. Now at last, you can begin to live…other people’s lives. You’ve learned to be ‘people’, but the people you have learned to be are ‘other people’. So congratulations, you just spent 25 years of your life learning how to be someone you’re not…and be really good at it! That’s what we call ‘culture’: learning to be ‘people’, other people, and learning to live other people’s lives. If the purpose of acculturation is to limit behavioral variety across a species, I’d say ours is working very nicely, thank you. More later… -David For 25 years, give or take, you learn to live. My mother called it ‘learning to be people’. “David,” she would say, “You’re just not people!” And she was right; I wasn’t. Then, after 25 years of learning to live, of learning to be ‘people’, you finally are ‘people’. Now at last, you can begin to live…other people’s lives. You’ve learned to be ‘people’, but the people you have learned to be are ‘other people’. So congratulations, you just spent 25 years of your life learning how to be someone you’re not…and be really good at it! That’s what we call ‘culture’: learning to be ‘people’, other people, and learning to live other people’s lives. If the purpose of acculturation is to limit behavioral variety across a species, I’d say ours is working very nicely, thank you. More later… -David Previous Next

Philosophy, theology, and science merge in Aletheia Today, the magazine for people who believe in God and science. Process philosophy, scripture study, and critical essays bring science and faith together with western philosophers like Alfred North Whitehead and Jean-Paul Sartre. Deep dives into the meaning of the Old Testamant, the New Testament, and where the Bible fits into modern-day society. Is God real? Does Heaven exist? Find your answers to life's questions at Aletheia Today. Inside This Issue Converge This! JK Rowling and Pliny the Elder "What about werewolves, giants, trolls, and dragons? We don’t believe in them; they’re not real! Are they?" The Lego Movie and John Stewart Bell “This movie includes a huge twist with cosmological implications.” Theology Returning to Andromeda “What sort of God would throw candy wrappers on a pristine beach? I mean, burning someone at the stake, well maybe, but littering, no way!” Two-Faced God “All gods are two faced…and that’s not blasphemy!” Beyond Pascal's Wager “Once we get past skyscrapers and suspension bridges, we really have no idea what’s going on, do we?” Hell “Nobody believes in Hell anymore…and that’s a good thing.” Philosophy Middle Voice “Eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. It’s a terrible way to live! But we’re living it…(but) it wasn’t always this way, and it doesn’t…have to be this way.” Who R U? - The Caterpillar “It is the uniqueness of events that 'creates' spacetime; it is not spacetime that makes events unique.” Culture & The Arts Credit Where Credit Is Due "I would like to share how I create music, but more importantly, where my music comes from." The Lottery “The state lottery is just about the only financial vehicle that offers certain folks a realistic opportunity to materially impact their economic circumstances.” Spirituality Beatitudes “The eight beatitudes are a 'manifesto' for change, a change in the way we understand the world…behave in that world… (and) act toward one another. The Porta Potty Perspective "Job was, you might say, trapped in a Porta Potty right there in the desert, despairingly dejected and despondent." Psalm 151 “But deliver us from evil,” this last verse is the key to the entire prayer. The Fight for Our Children's Hearts Starts at Home "For a culture that values education, we seem to forget that our children need to be educated in the Word, not just the world." Readers React What's the buzz about? Our readers' reactions to Aletheia Today... Additional Reading Can't get enough of Aletheia Today's content? Check out the books that inspire our magazine.

< Back The Fight for Our Children's Hearts Starts at Home Amy Toman For a culture that values education, we seem to forget that our children need to be educated in the Word, not just the world. Our culture puts a high value on the education of children. We have preschools that require entrance exams, schools that earn money based on students' test scores, community colleges, and universities with graduate and postgraduate degrees. For a culture that values education, we seem to forget that our children need to be educated in the Word, not just the world. The repeated theme in western education is one of “sending." We send our kids away to be taught academics at schools. We send children to be taught discipline and endurance through structured sports programs led by trained professionals. We send them away to be taught morals and truth at church. The continually reinforced reality is that we send them away. This pattern reveals a tremendous lack. We as parents are not equipped to be teaching our children. It is due to our lack that we send our children to those who have a supply. Our children must be taught by someone who has the correct credentials. We see this broken theme within every sphere of our society. Do we wonder why so often our youth abandon their heritage in culture and faith? We need to look no further than our own habits. They haven’t wandered away; we have sent our children away. The prevalence of youth and young adults leaving the church is astounding. If you look around at churches today, you will see that there is a significant age group missing: young adults. Our children are being won over by the culture of the world, not Christ. This can be changed for future generations. For a problem to be rectified, it must first be identified. There is time to bring our children back to Christ, and it starts at home. The training of our children to love God and contend for the faith starts at home. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, “And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” Scripture doesn't tell us that our children will learn about God from their private school teacher, their pastor, their youth group, their friends, or their youth pastor. Scripture tells us our children should be learning about God primarily from their homes. God’s word should be in their hearts daily and heard in their homes. But how do we as Christian parents do this? How are we supposed to teach our children daily in the instruction of the Lord? We are all super busy people. We may work, our kids are in school all day, then there is homework and sports and bed. There just isn’t enough time in the day, or is there? There are many ways that we can train our children in the Word, one of which is family worship. Worship is paramount in the life of a Christian. The definition of worship is the “feeling and expression of reverence and adoration for God," according to Webster's dictionary. Worship is about God. Worship is our expression of reverence and adoration to God our Father, our maker and creator. But what exactly is family worship, and how are we to start worshiping the Lord daily in our homes as a family? Family worship is a specific time when your family comes together to read God's word, pray, and sing. No elaborate sermons or messy crafts are required. Starting family worship is a lot easier than it seems. First, talk to your spouse and pray together about how best to spend time together in worship as a family. Second, choose a book of the Bible that you enjoy and start at chapter one. Start with reading a few verses every night, and as your family is able, increase your reading to an entire chapter. As you are reading, pause and ask basic questions about the passage: what just happened? Why do you think this passage is in the Bible? Who are the people in this passage, and did anything stick out to you? There is no need for any special devotional book, just your Bible. Reading scripture is the first step to family worship, but it is not the whole thing. During family worship, you should also sing and pray to God. Make a list of some of your favorite hymns and rotate through them regularly. Singing together may seem scary to many of us. I know I am not the best singer! I take comfort in the statement from Psalm 100:1: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord”. It is important to remember that throughout Scripture we have references to the Israelites and Christians singing praises to God. The entire book of Psalms was originally set to music. It was the songbook of God’s ancient people. We should sing praises to God whether we think we have a great voice or musical talent. Scripture reading and singing are two of the three components of family worship. The last component is prayer. It is important that we as families pray together. James 5:13 says, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.” God calls us to pray regardless of what is going on in our lives. Praying with our children teaches them how to pray and how to rely on God. We cannot expect our children to have a personal prayerful relationship with the Lord if we do not show them how. Praying together will bring your family closer, as you share joys and struggles with each other and bring them to the Lord. Family worship does not guarantee that our children will not leave the church, but it will make an impression. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” It is God’s work to save our children, but it is our job to train them according to God’s Word. The hearts of our children need to be won at home. They need to be shown the love of Christ within the context of their family. They must see and hear how God's Word applies to every aspect of their lives. Spending time in worship, singing, and prayer as a family will change who you are and will change your children. Scripture shows us several other instances of children being taught the ways of God through their parents as primary instructors. I encourage each of you to look at your daily schedules and see if you are teaching your children the ways of God. Our children will be sent out eventually. Maybe it’s for educational reasons, or maybe just because they have spread their wings to establish their own home. What will be their foundation when they are sent out? Will the truths of God’s Word be their firm perspective of reality? What values will our children treasure, and what values will future generations wish they had been taught? As a society that puts such a premium on education, prioritizing our children’s faith education is an effort that will see benefits wherever they are sent. Amy Toman has a B.S. in Early Childhood Education from Central Michigan University. She has been married to her husband for 13 years and they have four living children. Amy spends her days teaching her children, managing her household and writing as often as possible. She delights in engaging conversation and seeing children thrive in their curiosities and abilities. Return to our Spring 2023 Table of Contents Previous Next

< Back My PCP Should Be a BOT “Dr. Bot would handle patient in-take, conduct the initial interview…order appropriate tests, and offer a preliminary diagnosis…” David Cowles 1300 words, 6 minute read I like my PCP. She does her best, swimming against the tide of a dysfunctional healthcare system. And let’s be clear: if I had a serious medical condition, I’d want to be treated in the U.S. and nowhere else. So I have no time for yet another tear jerking expose of American healthcare! I mean, if that’s how you feel, don’t use it, and next time a loved one needs a complex medical procedure, feel free to head off to Canada, or the UK, or Sweden - wherever you think you’ll fare better; but as you travel, be careful not to bump into ‘medical tourists’ from those countries ‘sneaking’ across our borders to get their care in the U.S. Not your cup of tea after all? Then shut it! ( Full disclosure : I worked 40 years for a company I co-founded to provide comprehensive but affordable health benefits to employees of mid-sized U.S. businesses. So caveat lector .) That said, enough is enough! Prior to 2019, my personal interaction with the healthcare system consisted of an annual physical and a monthly prescription for a beta blocker. In the most recent 5 years, I have been admitted (overnight) to the hospital a half dozen times - incarcerated for a total of 40 days overall. Not fun! However, I was mainly well treated and the care I received was helpful, albeit minimal. Then I stubbed my left big toe. I’ve been stubbing my toes since the age of 3. Painful but no big deal! This time, however, I damaged the nail and after a week or so it was clear that the nail was coming off, whether I liked it or not. So I called my podiatrist…who could not see me for a month. No problem. I called my PCP and made an appointment for the next day. Her PA took one look at the toe and announced, “We can’t treat this here. You’ll need to go to Urgent Care (UC).” Not a problem either! I’m a strong believer in UC; it has served my family well in the past. This time, however, the two closest UC facilities were ‘booked solid’ and ‘not seeing walk-ins’ that day; so much for ‘urgent’. Plus I needed an X-ray and neither had X-ray capability on site. So my PCP sent me off to the ER…for a stubbed toe! Am I back in kindergarten? They took me in right away (glad for the revenue perhaps), but 5 hours later, I was still there. Following an X-ray, my ER Doc proudly announced, “Your right toe has a small fracture…which BTW we don’t need to treat.” Ok, but it was the left toe I stubbed! Hmm… In any event, I was sent on my way with a tetanus booster and an Rx for an antibiotic and a referral back to my Podiatrist who suddenly found he could ‘fit me in’ after all. So, all is well, right? Not even a little bit! In a country where some folks have virtually no access to healthcare, I unintentionally and unnecessarily consumed thousands of dollars’ worth…for a stubbed toe. Plus, during my week-long ordeal, I noticed that my docs were more interested in ‘ruling out what isn’t’ than they were in ‘treating what is’. They were running through a check list; they were practicing defensive medicine. They weren’t really looking at my toe…or listening to me ! So how can the system be made better? Begin by transitioning healthcare generalists (PCPs, Pediatricians, Family Doctors) from their current ‘front line’ positions to an ‘oversight’ role. Most current PCP functions could be the responsibility of a new uber-doc, AI Bot, MD, first in its class at Harvard Med. Dr. Bot would handle patient in-take, conduct the initial interview, download my electronic health record, build my medical history, order appropriate tests. Here too, AI can help. UCLA scientists have developed a single, simple, cost-effective blood test that promises to detect multiple cancers, organ abnormalities, and various liver conditions, all at once! ( Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ) Researchers analyzed blood samples from 1,061 people, including patients with liver, lung, ovarian and stomach cancers; individuals with liver diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, alcohol-related liver disease and metabolic-associated liver disease; people with benign lung nodules; and healthy participants (control group). AI algorithms were then applied to analyze the complex data. For multi-cancer detection , the test achieved a high level of overall accuracy. With fewer than 2% false positives, it detected about 63% of cancers across all stages and roughly 55% of early-stage cancers. The test also performed well among high-risk individuals with liver cirrhosis or HBV, detecting nearly 80% of cases with a less than 10% false positive rate. Armed with these results, my PCP Bot can now deliver a preliminary diagnosis along with any alternatives that ‘we can’t rule out’ to my physician manager (not a Bot, BTW). Each diagnosis would come with a full complement of treatment options, including the ‘null option’, along with risks and prognoses associated with each option. This sounds good…but can AI First Medicine work IRL? Turns out, it can and it does. On February 10, 2026, the University of Cambridge (UK) reported the following: “Researchers…analyzed heart sounds from nearly 1,800 patients using an AI algorithm trained to recognize valve disease, a condition that often goes undiagnosed until it becomes life-threatening. “ Valvular heart disease affects more than half of people over the age of 65, with around one in ten having significant disease. In its early stages, it is often symptom-free. ‘By the time advanced symptoms develop, the risk of death can be as high as 80% within two years if untreated’, said co-author Professor Rick Steeds from University Hospitals Birmingham. “The AI correctly identified 98% of patients with severe aortic stenosis , the most common form of valve disease requiring surgery, and 94% of those with severe mitral regurgitation. When tested against 14 GPs who listened to the same recordings, the algorithm outperformed every one of them and did so consistently. So what does this change accomplish? We have ensured that each patient and PCP get to see the full playing field of potential diagnoses and treatment options. We have massively boosted the productivity of every PCP, allowing them to spend more quality time with each patient and allowing us to increase their compensation. We have empowered doctors to do more MD-level work. On top of that, we will save massive amounts of money by getting more diagnoses right the first time, by reducing the number of false positives, and by cutting back on care wasted treating misdiagnosed conditions. ( Note : 20 – 30% of all the care delivered in the US today is not appropriate for the patient’s actual condition.) And last but by no means least, we will deliver better patient outcomes…much better…resulting in a generally healthier population! As you can see, we are not talking about incremental improvement here. We are talking about a cascade of positive, mutually reinforcing, socio-economic impacts: a lower average cost per unit of care, a healthier public, less productivity loss (fewer sick days), more efficient delivery of more effective treatments, and better MD working conditions. But this future depends on our willingness to integrate Dr. Bot into our practices. Once upon a time only carbon based ‘white men’ were doctors; we fixed that! Now we need to add silicon based ‘AI Bots’ to our treatment teams…and we need to do so yesterday! *** Image: "The Doctor," oil on canvas by Luke Fildes, 1891. Located at the Tate Gallery in London. Share Previous Next

< Back The Education Mess in America David Cowles Oct 3, 2024 “The ability to acquire new skills, absorb new information, and solve new problems will be the mark of an educated person, not their SAT scores.” 50 years ago public education in America was in crisis. Functional literacy was on the decline, standardized test scores were falling, drop-out rates rising. Public support for public education was at a low point. Private alternatives were proliferating, and the homeschool movement was organizing. Then, in the 1990s, things started to turn around. As is often the case, one of the first shots fired came from Massachusetts . In 1993, the state implemented a rigorous standardized testing program, called MCAS, that allowed parents and educators to compare students, schools, and districts. Bulletin : A town’s MCAS scores became a factor in determining its real estate values! Parents were suddenly motivated…and kids weren’t far behind. Not unexpectedly, test scores skyrocketed! Public education was back. Not unexpectedly, special interest groups howled and 30 years later, the battle rages on. In November (2024), MA voters will be asked to eliminate MCAS as a requirement for high school graduation; the outcome is anyone’s guess. Then in 2020, along came COVID! Education everywhere suffered and MA MCAS scores were not exempt. But as the pandemic subsided, the cognoscente trusted that scores would rebound, that annual progress would revert to mean; many expected that pandemic losses would be erased over time. Very unexpectedly, that has not happened. MCAS scores have not made up for lost ground, they did not revert to mean, they did not even stabilize. They have continued to fall. This article is not just about education! It’s about how society responds to a collective crisis, how it analyzes problems and how it dreams up solutions. Educational achievement does not occur in a classroom or in a school or in a state. Educational achievement happens in each student, individually. Of course, it’s possible to measure an artificial cross section of those students’ skill levels, e.g. by subjecting them to population-wide standardized testing; but if you don’t like the results, these test scores tell you precisely nothing about how to make impactful changes. It's no wonder then that the MA educational establishment is proposing a revolutionary approach to the problem: “More of the same!” Just do more of what we’ve been doing; things will get better. Trust us! Is there a single person alive who thinks this makes sense? Didn’t someone tell me once that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results was the definition of insanity? And yet it’s the establishment’s consensus recommendation: longer school days, longer school years, shorter vacations, fewer electives, etc. More of the same is our knee-jerk reaction to every crisis. Education does not happen collectively; it happens individually. One student might benefit from a longer school day and her performance might improve; another student might become bored, depressed, apathetic and see his performance plummet. Most students would be unaffected – more miserable, but otherwise unaffected. Whatever the impact of this ‘carpet bombing’ strategy on standardized test scores, we would learn nothing about what’s happening at the level of the individual student. If our goal is to educate young people up to a reasonable percentage of their potential, we need to look at many variables more important than test scores: How has the educational process impacted the student’s self-confidence and self-worth? Their problem solving skills? Their native curiosity? Their creativity? Have they learned to work on their own and to work in teams? Have they learned to cope with stress? To overcome obstacles? Most importantly, have they ‘learned to learn’ and have they come to love learning for its own sake? Do I sound New Age? Maybe! I do know this: in the coming years, the ability to acquire new skills, absorb new information, and solve new problems will be the mark of an educated person, not their SAT scores - to like to learn and to be good at it, not an ivy-league diploma. Now, if you are among those folks willing to sacrifice academic achievement in the service of various social objectives, you have by now no doubt concluded that I am on your side. You could not be more wrong! I believe that the social aspects of learning will facilitate the academic and that academic achievement, the mastery of subjects and skills, will help us realize our social goals. They are not at cross purposes; they go hand-in-hand. None of this has much to do with population-wide test scores, but if a student focused strategy is working, its success will ultimately show up in those scores. But that is a knock-on benefit; it can’t be the primary objective! Kids are like quanta. Bombarding them with information ( aka energy) does nothing; but just the right amount of energy delivered at just the right wavelength can bring about a quantum leap! So where does this leave us in our current educational crisis? Rather than a more of the same one-size-fits-all approach, we need to recognize that education takes place one student at a time. A society is not educated; its members are! Educators need to develop a PEP – “Personal Education Plan” for each student. That plan must attend to all aspects of education for all students, but in different proportions for different students, depending on their needs at particular points in their educational careers. Now I understand that we are ‘resource constrained’; a 1 to 1 teacher-student ratio is not in the cards. But longer school hours won’t come without a cost either…and the return on such an investment will be nil (or net negative). Better to take whatever we’re prepared to spend on more-of-the-same and invest it instead in programs and resources that would bring us closer to the realization of a PEP strategy for all students. Keep the conversation going. 1. Click here to contact us on any matter. How did you like the post? How could we do better in the future? Suggestions welcome. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.

< Back Age is an Algorithm David Cowles “We systematically suppress our actual experience and replace it with whatever it is we think we are supposed to experience, and we call that reality.” “Yesterday, my neighbor’s ‘12-year-old boy’ headed off to college and his ‘six-year-old baby sister’ started middle school. What’s going on here? I feel as though I turned once around, clicked my heels, and poof, the whole world changed overnight.” This may be how it seems to you, but of course, you don’t take seeming seriously. You’re educated; you know that Time is something you measure by uniform ticks of a clock (or oscillations of an EM particle). Any other way of looking at Time is childish… or a flashback to that famous acid trip you took in the ‘60s. So, here as elsewhere, we systematically suppress our actual experience ( seeming ) and replace it with what we are supposed to experience ( knowing ), and we call that reality! Of course, this has dire consequences: Constantly having to reject one’s own experience in favor of the manufactured collective experience of society leads to a loss of self-esteem; why can’t I see what others see? Too late, you realize that those others don’t actually see what they pretend to see either. We’re all gazing at the wall and cooing back and forth about the beauty of the mural painted on it…but none of us actually sees anything other than a bare wall. Asked, “And what do you think?” we spew out the same babble that we were given, thus reinforcing the consensus of the unreal . By subsuming our real experience to the imaginary collective experience of our culture, we make it just that much harder for others to honor their own experience. You should have stood your ground. While you were turning around once and clicking your heels, the world was changing…massively! Is this myth or magic? Neither…it’s math! Let’s keep it simple: I am 75, and I have a 15-year-old grandson. 5 years ago, I was 70 and he was 10. In the ensuing 5 years, I aged just over 7% (75/70) while my grandson aged exactly 50% (15/10). During that period, my grandson aged 7x more than I did. Conversely, time flowed 7x faster for me than for my grandson. No wonder he’s bored, and I can’t find enough hours in the day. Check it out: So, Time is passing 7x faster for me than it is for my grandson! My week is his day! The idea that everyone is moving through Time at the same rate is based on a long abandoned view of Time as absolute, objective reality. Einstein was the first to show that Time’s ‘flow rate’ is relative , i.e., relative to motion. What I’m suggesting goes way beyond Einstein and does not require relative motion. If we are to be true to phenomenal experience itself, we must begin our inquiry with our subjective experience of Time: how fast is Time flowing for me at my age? We have learned to self-censor. We nudge ourselves to conform our perceptions to the expectations of others. No one wants to admit that she is the only one who doesn’t know who the emperor’s wearing on the red carpet this season. It is no wonder then that we don’t seem to be making much progress, metaphysically speaking. We’ve suppressed the World we’re here to read (Joyce) and replaced it with a stripped down, Cliff Notes version that mainly reflects the ‘wisdom’ of Plato, Euclid and Newton, RIP. Today, virtually all intellectual inquiry takes place in a collectively designed, artificial universe. “They’ve paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.” (Joni Mitchell) All our reasoning is therefore self-referential. We define a world a priori ; then we deduce certain theorems regarding that world. Finally, we attempt to use those same theorems to prove that the world we defined actually exists. Neat…circular…useless! Everything we do, we do with curated data and circular models. My grandest philosophical edifices amount to nothing more than “ice cream castles in the air.” (Judy Collins) We need to hit Refresh and return to Ground Zero, i.e., raw, minimally processed, subjective experience. Like a gourmand undertaking a ‘cleanse’, we need to get back on a diet of fruit and uncooked vegetables. Collectively, we must begin paying attention to our actual experiences instead of the pre-digested pseudo-experiences served-up to us at home, in school, on the job, and through the media. We must undertake a thorough epistemological self-examination: what do we believe, and why do we believe it? And we need to discard whatever is not ultimately grounded in actual experience, especially if it is inconsistent with that experience. Meanwhile, you can run the Age Algorithm™ for yourself. Fact : Time flows at different rates for people of different ages. You can use the Age Algorithm™ to calculate the relative rate of flow for any two people at any two (different) ages. You can even use it to compare Time’s flow for you at different periods of your own life: Example : you are 50 and your youngest daughter is 10. One year equals 2% of your life span, but that same year equals 10% of hers. Time flows 5x faster for you than for her. Resolved : From now on, I will ground all my philosophical inquiries in my own (subjective) experience. I will battle groupthink wherever I find it! Will you join me? Keep the conversation going! 1. Click here to comment on this TWS. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs. 4. Aletheia Today Magazine (ATM) will be devoting its entire fall issue (released 9/1/23) to artificial intelligence (AI). What are the philosophical, theological, cultural and even spiritual implications of AI powered world? If you’d like to contribute to the AI Issue, click here . Previous Next

Thirty years after the death of Jesus…St. Paul quoted an already ancient Christology…a TOE. < Back A Theory of Everything (TOE) David Cowles Oct 15, 2022 Thirty years after the death of Jesus…St. Paul quoted an already ancient Christology…a TOE. It all started with Einstein, of course: modern science’s search for a Theory of Everything (TOE). 100 years gone and still no joy! But thirty years after the death of Jesus, in a letter to the Christian community at Colossae in Asia Minor, St. Paul quoted an already ancient Christology that itself constitutes a complete Cosmology, a TOE (click on image for expanded view): Not convinced? Not a problem! The search for ‘a better TOE’ goes on. However, the decision to reject Paul’s cosmology has consequences. It seems you must hold one (or more) of the following views: (1) The Cosmology we’ve presented is not a TOE. (2) The Cosmology we’ve presented is not consistent with Paul’s Christology. (3) The TOE we’ve presented contains internal inconsistencies. (4) The Cosmology we’ve presented is a valid and consistent TOE, but it is only one of many possible TOEs. Can you come up with an objection to our thesis that does not fall under one of the objections listed above. If so, please let us know. If not, then I respond as follows. (1) It is true that our Cosmology does not let you predict the outcome of next year’s Super Bowl; nor tell us why the sky is blue. But it does answer every question that matters: How is it that what is is? Why is it that what is ( Dasein ) what it is ( Wassein )? What will what is come to be? (2) If our ‘translation’ doesn’t work for you, suggest one that does. How do you understand the cosmological assumptions implicit in Paul’s Christology? Feel free to sketch out an alternative cosmology that is more consistent with Paul’s Christology. (3) With all due respect, show me! (4) Surprise: This objection may be valid …or not! Of course, there are indefinitely many possible TOEs, but will the others stand up to a deep structural analysis? Or will it turn out that any successful TOEs must be mappable onto Paul’s Christology? David Cowles is the founder and editor-in-chief of Aletheia Today Magazine. He lives with his family in Massachusetts where he studies and writes about philosophy, science, theology, and scripture. He can be reached at david@aletheiatoday.com. Share Previous Next Click here. Do you like what you just read? Subscribe today and receive sneak previews of Aletheia Today Magazine articles before they're published. Plus, you'll receive our quick-read, biweekly blog, Thoughts While Shaving. Subscribe Thanks for subscribing! Return to Table of Contents, Winter 2023 Issue Return to Table of Contents, Holiday Issue Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue Return to Table of Contents, Fall Issue Return to Table of Contents, Beach Issue Return to Table of Contents, June Issue

E. C. Argus < Back E. C. Argus Contributor E. C. Argus is a Catholic Christian citizen of planet Earth, engaged in a life-long quest to understand reality as a player in God’s great rescue project. She hopes her small takes on the greatest story ever told might bring light to someone’s darkness or help to lift a burden from someone’s bowed shoulders. She spends a lot of time outside, in awe of the complexity and beauty of the natural world. She makes a living creating and teaching the performing arts. Judas Taught Me the Beatitudes

“Of course, no one needs to invoke Mary’s intercession… (but) imagine OJ without his Dream Team.” < Back Ave Maria David Cowles Jul 15, 2023 “Of course, no one needs to invoke Mary’s intercession… (but) imagine OJ without his Dream Team.” It’s one of two prayers that form the core of Roman Catholic piety. More often called Hail Mary by the prayerful, it is a staple of every post-confession penance and often makes an appearance at weddings. It also forms the body of the Rosary , another uniquely Catholic spiritual practice: Hail Mary, full of grace, The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners, Now and at the hour of our death, Amen. The prayer naturally breaks into two halves, the first part highlighting things done by God for Mary, the second part highlighting Mary’s active contribution to the process of salvation. “Hail Mary” is the voice of the angel Gabrielle, sent by God to bring ‘glad tidings’. God’s grace is his free gift to Mary; for all her renowned sanctity, she has done nothing to earn it. It is God’s to distribute as he will. Out of all women, God chooses Mary to partner with him in the Incarnation. So, she is doubly blessed, first by God’s selection, then by the fruit of her womb . Abruptly, the tone changes. While ‘grace’ is the unearned gift of God, ‘holiness’ requires the cooperation of the saint. God alone cannot make us holy, unfortunately. (That is indeed a rock he cannot lift!) In the prayer’s first stanza, Mary is God’s passive beneficiary, but if you thought that Mary was a little lamb , it’s time to disabuse yourself. She is a lion! This should not surprise us. Mary’s Magnificat , in response to Gabriel’s annunciation message, tells us everything we need to know about her: My soul proclaims the greatness of God… He has shown the strength of his arm, He has scattered the proud in their conceit, He has cast down the mighty from their thrones… The rich he has sent away empty. Mary is no wall flower; God made a good choice (of course) and Mary does not shy away from the awesome responsibility of her role in cosmic history. She will be Mater Dei ; she will be the Mother of God! God chose a fierce partner…and we have an opportunity to do the same. Speaking strictly from my personal experience, we are sinners. Not even OJ’s Dream Team can get us out of the pickle we’re in! We need an advocate even more persuasive, more unrelenting than Johnny Cochran. Who comes to mind? The Mother of God, perhaps? I mean, who among us can turn down flat a heartfelt request from our mother? Your mother might ask you to visit her more often; duly noted. Jesus’ mother asked him to turn water into wine, which he did…with a flourish (best saved ‘til last)… even though he was trying his best to remain incognito. I want her on my side! Of course, no one needs to invoke Mary’s intercession. We’re free to go it alone if we choose. We can represent ourselves; we can appear before God pro se . But we all know what’s said of those who choose to be their own attorneys. Not convinced? Ok, imagine OJ without his Dream Team ; and now imagine me…without the Mother of God at my side. ‘Nuff said? David Cowles is the founder and editor-in-chief of Aletheia Today Magazine. He lives with his family in Massachusetts where he studies and writes about philosophy, science, theology, and scripture. He can be reached at david@aletheiatoday.com . Return to our Beach Read 2023 Table of Contents Previous Next Share Do you like what you just read? Subscribe today and receive sneak previews of Aletheia Today Magazine articles before they're published. Plus, you'll receive our quick-read, biweekly blog, Thoughts While Shaving. Subscribe Thanks for subscribing! Click here. Return to Table of Contents, Winter 2023 Issue Return to Table of Contents, Holiday Issue Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue Return to Table of Contents, September Issue Return to Table of Contents, Beach Issue Return to the Table of Contents, June Issue