The Other Side of Math

∞ APPENDIX C ∞

PREVIEW OF OSOM STEP 5
IDENTIFYING THE TARGET:


MANKIND’S PAST, CURRENT AND FUTURE
TECHNOLOGIES:
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

 

Step 5, Identifying the Target, opens up the field of technologies — past, present and future — to causative math students already educated to think outside the box by OSOM Steps 2, 3 and 4: Problem Creation, Alternatives and Inspiration.

OSOM students know more than one way of thinking and doing things mathematically. They are capable of creating and holding ideas from their own unique viewpoint. They have attained a degree of certainty that alternatives to the math in their textbooks either exists or can be developed. They have completed a careful study of the, adventures, misadventures and genius of the masters of math and science.

Students must make choices regarding what they, as adults — and sometimes as professionals — will be using math for. On Step 5 of OSOM, the primary and secondary school student learns that math, as an indispensable tool of science, can be used to both help and to harm.

My intention on this step definitely and necessarily includes instilling in students a moral code adequate to the demands of species survival. Having such a moral code to accompany their knowledge and skill in the subjects of math and science is good for the individual student and good for the future of mankind. Bluntly (to make the point utterly obvious), the OSOM program and its graduates are not intended to produce more efficient means of delivering nuclear weapons of even smaller size and greater mega-tonnage to that current sub-group of humanity which has been designated as “the enemy” or “the other” by “our leaders.”

Smart parents do not wait until their child is on his way to the university to instill in him a moral code. They start early so that the youth can receive the greatest benefit from his education. Likewise, Step 5 should begin not at the undergraduate, masters or doctoral level but as soon as the student has completed OSOM Step 4.

I have chosen the following examples because they clearly illustrate the good, the bad, and the ugly in science, technology, engineering and math. However, I am neither stating nor implying that all things connected with the conquest of space, the use solar power, and electric vehicles are always beneficial. Nor do I believe that our use of nuclear energy for power generation is always bad. As in all things wrought by human beings, the individual’s full understanding, foresight, professional level skill and good judgment are required to make choices that will bring about the greatest possible long-term survival for Man, the Earth, and its living inhabitants.

On Step 5, the math student will learn to recognize that there exists a “moral scale” — ranging from wholly destructive at the bottom to wholly constructive at the top — and that his own decisions and actions will place him on that scale.

 

 

 MATH CAN BE USED TO DEVELOP, BRING TO MARKET AND MAINTAIN TECHNOLOGIES THAT BENEFIT THE LONG-TERM SURVIVAL OF MANKIND

 

The conception, design, development, fabrication, astronaut training, utilization, and maintenance of the International Space Station along with its many support vehicles and earthbound facilities.

 

 

Vehicles powered by electricity rather than fossil fuels

 

 

Energy created by solar panels

 

 

MATH CAN BE USED TO REDUCE MANKIND’S SURVIVAL BY APPLYING MATH TO PROJECTS THAT MAY APPEAR TO HAVE LIMITED, SHORT-TERM VALUE BUT WHICH ARE ACTUALLY HARMFUL IN THE LONG-TERM.

 

In the foreground, a radiometer is being used to measure levels of harmful radiation. In the background is the 4th nuclear reactor of Chernobyl in the Ukraine. This reactor failed catastrophically on the 26th of April, 1986, resulting in unprecedented human and environmental damage from a nuclear accident.

 

 

MATH CAN BE USED TO INTENTIONALLY HARM OUR SPECIES, OUR PLANET, AND ITS LIVING INHABITANTS

The following is a partial list of Nazi concentration camps that used gas chambers and/or crematorium to murder very large numbers of human beings. Using the science, technology, engineering and math learned in school, German architects, engineers, chemists, medical doctors, and other professionals were contracted and paid to design and build these death camp facilities. (Wikipedia carries extensive articles on each of these camps. Caution: These Wikipedia articles do not pull punches.)

 

 

THE PRODUCT OF STEP 5

THE PRODUCT OF STEP 5 IS A MATH STUDENT WHO WILL USE HIS MATH SKILLS FOR THE LONG-TERM SURVIVAL OF MAN.  He understands our current level of technological development in the major areas of energy production, housing, food, healthcare, transportation, communication, finance, computers, space travel, etc. He knows (1) which of our present technologies promote the greatest long-term good, (2) which are more destructive than they are helpful in the long-term, and (3) and those which are actually intended to cause widespread harm. He is not confused or persuaded by arguments that favor short-term monetary, political or personal gain over long-term harm to our race, our home (the planet Earth) and its many billions of living inhabitants.