I thought the very same thing, so I actually read the article.
From TFA
"The new sequences will be stored and made publically available at the Genome Ark database, a digital open-access library of genomes. Corporate sponsors DNAnexus and Amazon Web “have been instrumental in getting this project off the ground,” said Phillippy."
I'm certain there will be some catch on account of "corporate sponsors", but at face value, this actually looks pretty benevolent. I'm guessing the corporate dogs get some kind of "Right of patent" or the like on the inevitable research breakthroughs and discoveries that come of this.
Article also says it takes a week to sequence a single one, so we're talking 11,088,000 man hours (before setbacks, mistakes and equipment failures) with current technology, and it's worth pointing out that this is running in tandem with the Human Connectome Project, and possibly replicating the efforts of the Earth Biogenome Project.
While I'm all for a project like this, putting the complete genome of every vertebrate species on the planet into an open source project just for the lolz, this sounds way to good to be true.
Also, does putting the number 66k out there means we're finally past the whole "new species are being discovered everyday." phase of history?
"Look over here! See? We're thinking about maybe eventually doing something someday! (Pay no attention to the massive personal data collection feast that every-single-damn-corporation and government in the entire bloody world is gorging on behind the curtain)"
WHY do people give so many shits for instabook and facegram? It's not something anybody actually needs to begin with. For fucks sake. Big tech is not "The internet"... in fact, the case has been made that these companies are big evil time eaters that provide value only to every users political and ideological enemies. (and the great american advertising succubus that keeps the 1% balls deep in our bank accounts) These companies have been enjoying a wave for a while now, but it wont last forever. This "problem" is already beginning to solve itself.
Really want to accelerate the change? Here's a few ideas that nobody seems to be floating... teach people what propaganda looks like. Start actually funding education as the critically important resource that it is. Tell people to stop trusting the media. Tell them to start verifying the information they are being given. Teach them how to fact check things themselves, instead of relying on the next channel down to do it for them. Tell people to think critically, and trust only themselves.
I bet things will start to change pretty fucking fast. Yeah, I know. Fat fucking chance of any of that.
I hate that big tech is involved in my sons school day. Most of his coursework is now done on chrome-books, but nobody can tell me what happens to the huge amount of data he generates by using the Chromebook 6 hours a day in a controlled setting.
The best I get from google is, "We will not use this data to target ads on the chrome-book."
This is such a bullshit lawyer line it makes me sick. I didn't ask what you are NOT doing with the data, and I never cared about where you use the data. I want to know what you are using this data for, how closely are you watching the kids, how much money are you making with it, how does this effect the curriculum, and how anonymous is it?
These questions should be CLEARLY answered if I am not given a choice of device, and the answers updated every time the school extorts licensing costs for these devices from parents.
Last year I showed my boy how a VPN works, explained the way encryption messes with surveillance, and taught him the value of privacy and his personal information. Days later he says they found his VPN breadcrumbs, and threatened to call me because of his actions. I told him to tell them to go head and call. School starts in 2 days here. This year I'm going to see about bringing our own device- it's all just connecting to google services with chrome anyway.
I get how these devices make it easier on already spread thin teaching staff, interactivity keeps the students engaged, money saved on paper... I understand all of that, but it's not a net win if we are teaching our children to throw away personal privacy, and embrace invasive surveillance in the classroom- it's a net loss.
I have to respectfully disagree. The patent itself is the motivator to invent better and novel ways of doing things. Without the patent, we would likely not have a great many awesome things we have today. The short(er) time-frame of a patent allows the market to change things after the creator has had his day.
What bothers me is the way that tech giants go about applying for them. I'm no expert,and this is purely observation from the outside, but it really seems like the giants apply for patents on every little thing, prior art be damned, and if even one out of 1000 sticks, the filing fees and lawyers salaries spent on the other 999 become a drop in the bucket. I would see a reasonable daily limit on patent applications from a single source if I had my way.
That paper was a great read, thank you. Tons of great points, and the parallels cannot be argued, but I still standby the fact that patents are necessary to secure the motivation to realize inventions and bring them to market. While this system does create a lot of problems in the same way that land and property rights do, patents expire, at which point those problems go away, and the invention becomes part of our collective culture.
I'll sing a different tune when they start granting monopolies on space toiletpaper rolls, and zero-g dishwashers and the like. Patents on things like rounded corners, and "-----on a computer" infuriate me, but they can be challenged in court if the said patent is all the way silly, and they also expire eventually.
The other thing I like about patents is that the functions and methods of the invention become searchable public knowledge, and can be read in full, so a person can build one for personal or educational use without asking for permission or paying licensing to the holder (under certain circumstances) This goes a long way down the "encouraging useful arts" road as far I'm concerned.
I heard somewhere that the formula for WD-40 was never patented for that reason, and remains a trade-secret to this day.
That's not so say copyright is not insanely broken, but we are discussing patents, which (correct me if I'm wrong) currently stand at a reasonable 20 years, and actually do benefit both the creator, as well as society as a whole. It's one of the few ways left for a smart person to break into big money by being smart, solving problems, and working the system.
It's crazy how we are so used to the word games now, unlimited actually means something different for every plan AND every provider, and we just accept it.
Call center tech support lv1, 1 year Learned the ins and outs of working in a call center, built my tolerance for bullshit here.
Call center support lvl 3,4 years Learned what a real support role offers, got exposure to technical writing, interacted with very high end clients, grew used to responsibility.
Military, 4 years. Learned REAL responsibility, how to deal with extreme performance pressure, interacted with extremely high end hardware.
Sys admin 2 years while GI bill paid for industry certs. Felt like I was really "Putting in the time" and "Paying my dues" while performing work far beneath my abilities. I like to think it showed. The hardest part here was leaving for a better position. Friends, family, and boss all said I was making a mistake and walking away from a "decent" career.
IT manager, 4 years---- First taste of management position outside of military and real money. I would have stayed in this position for life if the next position had not been created for me.
Robotics Hardware Engineer-- Lateral promotion from IT manager. Moved my office into the machine shop, and I now do what I've wanted to do since I was 10. 6 figures. No degree. Went from hobby robotics to industrial. Could not have done it without a team of guys with very specific degrees working under me.
The hardest part was the first half of the career, making almost enough to survive in a extremely high COL area, with no guarantee of ever making it to any kind of comfort zone. If not for the Military, I'm not sure if I ever would have. Leaving "almost good enough" positions for something better was also pretty hard, and the whole time, everybody keeps saying "How far do you really think you can go without a 4 year degree?"
Through out this path, I've constantly been working with people with 4 year degrees who had been doing worse than me on account of crushing loan debt.
Theft is theft, yellow is yellow, potatoes are potatoes, and blowjobs are blowjobs,what's your point? We're talking about copyright, and copyright infringement here.
Say copyright protections expire tomorrow on IP XYZ. It has made it's creators untold amounts of money, and even the creators grand children have been enjoying the proceeds.
Creators grandchildren have since sold the rights to a large corporation, as they knew the rights would expire soon, making them publicly owned. Maybe this corporation has a mouse for a mascot, maybe they don't.
This corporation has spent a very large amount of corporate money bribing lawmakers such as to pass a copyright extension bill.
This bill passes, and the copyright is extended another 20 years, clawing back the rights to everything that was set to fall into the public domain for the next two decades. So that again, for the next 20 years, no IP will become public.
Now Mr. Public had no say in this. He was not offered a chance to explain to the judge that he has played by the rules, and waited patiently for his cultural works to become public. The choice to "Extend copyright" (STEAL FROM THE PUBLIC) was made without his say so. He now no longer has access to the next 20 years of IP that was to fall into the public domain, and instead, must contentiously license the works from big corporations that had no hand in the original publishing of said works.
He is deprived of something that he was supposed to have. It was taken from him, and he no longer has it.
You're so right, theft is theft. Copying is copying, but in the United Corporations of America, there is no difference.
Because copyright is supposed to be a deal, made in the interest of the people. You are granted a LIMITED monopoly on the work, FROM THE PEOPLE so as to encourage the conception and realization of said work.
If you are still getting paid for your game 40 years after its been created, good for you, but the deal was made 40 years ago. It's time to allow the public access. You've had your time, you've BEEN paid, and are now encouraged to create something new.
I grew up in a tour bus. I was a straight up bus when my old man bought it. 90s Silver Eagle to be exact. We spent a summer pulling out the seats, installing propane, solar panels and a water system. Back and fourth all over the country every summer after that. We even turned the bottom luggage area into a little garage for the Harley.
He used to say,"We're playin gypsy" when we had to move every night to avoid getting a ticket, but we had a ton of fun, and it paid for itself in saved rent money. This was in Western WA, so weather was not much of a concern, and MS was just starting to spin up the east side. We saw a ton of tech workers in the campgrounds, living out of converted vans and school-buses, even back then.
It's defiantly doable on the cheap if you're determined and handy. Just takes a little getting used to, and a little more resourcefulness. Laundrymats are shitty, and scavenging for showers sucks. You still need to buy a night every week or two at a campground to dump your tanks and reup the water. When your ""Playing gypsy" everybody knows whats up after a day or two, and from time to time people call the cops if you stick to the same block or two.
My point is, you don't have to start with the 400k monstrosity. A used bus or large van/box-truck can be made livable for almost nothing- as long as the weather holds. Go for it man!
Having grown up like that, I would never do it with a family though. It was just the two of us, but living like that was pretty rough on teenage me.
These files have been floating around the net in various archives since they had been initially released. Last time I went looking I found them in an archive containing far worse than the files I was looking for.
Trying to say they are unavailable online only makes the download links multiply.
Anybody who wants these files already has them. All this does is make said files harder to collaborate on and share throughout the firearm and 3d printing community.
It's as if half the population forgot that some people like to make things that don't run on a computer, including guns, and banning things creates powerful black markets.
I suspect they are spinning it this way to manipulate you, but that in reality they are using it to undermine privacy protections. My suspicion is that this isn't about privacy. Think about it. This is about companies wanting to *prevent* states from passing their own privacy laws, because of things like states passing laws against using facial recognition. Congress will pass a law to keep states from doing that, and that law will give big data companies legal cover both for (1) continuing to use their massive existing amounts of data, which is a large corporate asset, in AI work and (2) collecting additional data.
There will be some minimal federal protections in the law, probably aimed at nominally anonymizing the data or not using it to make spam phone calls or something else people will like that won't affect the companies that want to use it. But those are there mostly to give cover to politicians so they can spin it as protecting privacy.
Just a guess that would be in keeping with how government works.
I can to say this very thing. Quoting to boost ACs visibility.
I'm sure they will call it something like the "PROTECTING INTERNET PRIVACY ACT". That will pretty much tell us everything we need to know.
PLACE A SPACE-MISSILE BATTERY ON THE MOON. Stick some nukes in it for fun... cuz America.
Now you can deny anybody access to space until you run outta missiles. I guarantee this is going to happen eventually. Might as well get started today.
Or I guess we can wait for China to show us how it's done. Then once it's been used a few times, the huge amounts of way-to-small-to-track (WTSTT) space garbage will deny everybody access, and we can all just fester and die on our doomed planet.
The length of a US patent is 20 years. I think this is just about right where it is supposed to be. I don't like it, but I see that it is necessary.
I also like watching giants duke it out in court for the entire 20 years.
I think there are 2 reforms that need to happen with our patent system here in the states.
1. Use it or lose it. End patent trolling for good. 2. Limited applications. Half the reason we have so many dumbass patents (rounded corners, swipe left ect..) is because we allow giant companies to apply for patents en-mass. Apply for 500 frivolous patents a day. if even one gets approved a quarter, you can unleash the lawyers and recoup the cost of all of the failed applications and rent seek for another 20 years. If you can afford huge upfront cost, or already have the lawyers for doing your legit patents, you gotta keep em busy.
The same kids that cant seem to pay attention to a boring lecture are perfectly capable to playing the latest AA shooting game for hours on end without blinking (with almost no noticeable drop in accuracy) These younger people can intuit a brand new UI in a matter of seconds. They see patterns with a glance that takes us older nerds at least a small amount of concentration.
The way we learn has been evolving at a hyper-accelerated pace since the personal computer hit critical mass.
It's not the kids. It's not the games, or the screens, or the phones, or the media. It's the teaching methods.
The methods that are working are training the younger generation the twitch ability and quick thinking skills of a fighter pilot, all before they reach teenage-hood.
How is this not glaringly obvious to everybody looking at the "problem"?
Slashdot Mirror
Seems like a great device for watching the general public... Who is really asleep, and who is faking it. Sigh...
-ftfy
I thought the very same thing, so I actually read the article.
From TFA
"The new sequences will be stored and made publically available at the Genome Ark database, a digital open-access library of genomes. Corporate sponsors DNAnexus and Amazon Web “have been instrumental in getting this project off the ground,” said Phillippy."
I'm certain there will be some catch on account of "corporate sponsors", but at face value, this actually looks pretty benevolent. I'm guessing the corporate dogs get some kind of "Right of patent" or the like on the inevitable research breakthroughs and discoveries that come of this.
Article also says it takes a week to sequence a single one, so we're talking 11,088,000 man hours (before setbacks, mistakes and equipment failures) with current technology, and it's worth pointing out that this is running in tandem with the Human Connectome Project, and possibly replicating the efforts of the Earth Biogenome Project.
While I'm all for a project like this, putting the complete genome of every vertebrate species on the planet into an open source project just for the lolz, this sounds way to good to be true.
Also, does putting the number 66k out there means we're finally past the whole "new species are being discovered everyday." phase of history?
This test is too hard! (So we lower the standards)
"Look over here! See? We're thinking about maybe eventually doing something someday! (Pay no attention to the massive personal data collection feast that every-single-damn-corporation and government in the entire bloody world is gorging on behind the curtain)"
WHY do people give so many shits for instabook and facegram? It's not something anybody actually needs to begin with. For fucks sake. Big tech is not "The internet"... in fact, the case has been made that these companies are big evil time eaters that provide value only to every users political and ideological enemies. (and the great american advertising succubus that keeps the 1% balls deep in our bank accounts) These companies have been enjoying a wave for a while now, but it wont last forever. This "problem" is already beginning to solve itself.
Really want to accelerate the change? Here's a few ideas that nobody seems to be floating... teach people what propaganda looks like. Start actually funding education as the critically important resource that it is. Tell people to stop trusting the media. Tell them to start verifying the information they are being given. Teach them how to fact check things themselves, instead of relying on the next channel down to do it for them. Tell people to think critically, and trust only themselves.
I bet things will start to change pretty fucking fast. Yeah, I know. Fat fucking chance of any of that.
Let this be a lesson to them. Today it was Mspy... tomorrow it could be.. YOU!
I hate that big tech is involved in my sons school day. Most of his coursework is now done on chrome-books, but nobody can tell me what happens to the huge amount of data he generates by using the Chromebook 6 hours a day in a controlled setting.
The best I get from google is, "We will not use this data to target ads on the chrome-book."
This is such a bullshit lawyer line it makes me sick. I didn't ask what you are NOT doing with the data, and I never cared about where you use the data.
I want to know what you are using this data for, how closely are you watching the kids, how much money are you making with it, how does this effect the curriculum, and how anonymous is it?
These questions should be CLEARLY answered if I am not given a choice of device, and the answers updated every time the school extorts licensing costs for these devices from parents.
Last year I showed my boy how a VPN works, explained the way encryption messes with surveillance, and taught him the value of privacy and his personal information. Days later he says they found his VPN breadcrumbs, and threatened to call me because of his actions. I told him to tell them to go head and call. School starts in 2 days here. This year I'm going to see about bringing our own device- it's all just connecting to google services with chrome anyway.
I get how these devices make it easier on already spread thin teaching staff, interactivity keeps the students engaged, money saved on paper... I understand all of that, but it's not a net win if we are teaching our children to throw away personal privacy, and embrace invasive surveillance in the classroom- it's a net loss.
I have to respectfully disagree. The patent itself is the motivator to invent better and novel ways of doing things. Without the patent, we would likely not have a great many awesome things we have today. The short(er) time-frame of a patent allows the market to change things after the creator has had his day.
What bothers me is the way that tech giants go about applying for them. I'm no expert,and this is purely observation from the outside, but it really seems like the giants apply for patents on every little thing, prior art be damned, and if even one out of 1000 sticks, the filing fees and lawyers salaries spent on the other 999 become a drop in the bucket. I would see a reasonable daily limit on patent applications from a single source if I had my way.
That paper was a great read, thank you. Tons of great points, and the parallels cannot be argued, but I still standby the fact that patents are necessary to secure the motivation to realize inventions and bring them to market. While this system does create a lot of problems in the same way that land and property rights do, patents expire, at which point those problems go away, and the invention becomes part of our collective culture.
I'll sing a different tune when they start granting monopolies on space toiletpaper rolls, and zero-g dishwashers and the like. Patents on things like rounded corners, and "-----on a computer" infuriate me, but they can be challenged in court if the said patent is all the way silly, and they also expire eventually.
The other thing I like about patents is that the functions and methods of the invention become searchable public knowledge, and can be read in full, so a person can build one for personal or educational use without asking for permission or paying licensing to the holder (under certain circumstances) This goes a long way down the "encouraging useful arts" road as far I'm concerned.
I heard somewhere that the formula for WD-40 was never patented for that reason, and remains a trade-secret to this day.
You're confusing patents with copyright.
That's not so say copyright is not insanely broken, but we are discussing patents, which (correct me if I'm wrong) currently stand at a reasonable 20 years, and actually do benefit both the creator, as well as society as a whole. It's one of the few ways left for a smart person to break into big money by being smart, solving problems, and working the system.
But they have paid for it. Plan says "UNLIMITED".
It's crazy how we are so used to the word games now, unlimited actually means something different for every plan AND every provider, and we just accept it.
Is right twice a term...
The support role is the first stepping stone.
My own path was-
Call center tech support lv1, 1 year
Learned the ins and outs of working in a call center, built my tolerance for bullshit here.
Call center support lvl 3,4 years
Learned what a real support role offers, got exposure to technical writing, interacted with very high end clients, grew used to responsibility.
Military, 4 years.
Learned REAL responsibility, how to deal with extreme performance pressure, interacted with extremely high end hardware.
Sys admin 2 years while GI bill paid for industry certs. Felt like I was really "Putting in the time" and "Paying my dues" while performing work far beneath my abilities. I like to think it showed. The hardest part here was leaving for a better position. Friends, family, and boss all said I was making a mistake and walking away from a "decent" career.
IT manager, 4 years---- First taste of management position outside of military and real money. I would have stayed in this position for life if the next position had not been created for me.
Robotics Hardware Engineer-- Lateral promotion from IT manager. Moved my office into the machine shop, and I now do what I've wanted to do since I was 10. 6 figures. No degree. Went from hobby robotics to industrial. Could not have done it without a team of guys with very specific degrees working under me.
The hardest part was the first half of the career, making almost enough to survive in a extremely high COL area, with no guarantee of ever making it to any kind of comfort zone. If not for the Military, I'm not sure if I ever would have. Leaving "almost good enough" positions for something better was also pretty hard, and the whole time, everybody keeps saying "How far do you really think you can go without a 4 year degree?"
Through out this path, I've constantly been working with people with 4 year degrees who had been doing worse than me on account of crushing loan debt.
Lets turn off all of the elevators in the high-rise buildings, and only have hot water 6-9pm.
Its a floating city. Why are we are we taking it apart? Make it a homeless shelter.
Stick a $500.00 sticker on it and it will vanish overnight.
People seem to forget that just because you want something doesn't mean you're entitled to it.
But in this case, if you can afford to lobby lawmakers enough to extend the copyright laws, you most defiantly* CAN.
*Not a typo
Theft is theft, yellow is yellow, potatoes are potatoes, and blowjobs are blowjobs,what's your point? We're talking about copyright, and copyright infringement here.
Say copyright protections expire tomorrow on IP XYZ. It has made it's creators untold amounts of money, and even the creators grand children have been enjoying the proceeds.
Creators grandchildren have since sold the rights to a large corporation, as they knew the rights would expire soon, making them publicly owned. Maybe this corporation has a mouse for a mascot, maybe they don't.
This corporation has spent a very large amount of corporate money bribing lawmakers such as to pass a copyright extension bill.
This bill passes, and the copyright is extended another 20 years, clawing back the rights to everything that was set to fall into the public domain for the next two decades. So that again, for the next 20 years, no IP will become public.
Now Mr. Public had no say in this. He was not offered a chance to explain to the judge that he has played by the rules, and waited patiently for his cultural works to become public. The choice to "Extend copyright" (STEAL FROM THE PUBLIC) was made without his say so. He now no longer has access to the next 20 years of IP that was to fall into the public domain, and instead, must contentiously license the works from big corporations that had no hand in the original publishing of said works.
He is deprived of something that he was supposed to have. It was taken from him, and he no longer has it.
You're so right, theft is theft. Copying is copying, but in the United Corporations of America, there is no difference.
Because copyright is supposed to be a deal, made in the interest of the people. You are granted a LIMITED monopoly on the work, FROM THE PEOPLE so as to encourage the conception and realization of said work.
If you are still getting paid for your game 40 years after its been created, good for you, but the deal was made 40 years ago. It's time to allow the public access. You've had your time, you've BEEN paid, and are now encouraged to create something new.
And now the marketing people have corrupted it. We will never get the 80s and 90s back.
I grew up in a tour bus. I was a straight up bus when my old man bought it. 90s Silver Eagle to be exact. We spent a summer pulling out the seats, installing propane, solar panels and a water system. Back and fourth all over the country every summer after that. We even turned the bottom luggage area into a little garage for the Harley.
He used to say ,"We're playin gypsy" when we had to move every night to avoid getting a ticket, but we had a ton of fun, and it paid for itself in saved rent money. This was in Western WA, so weather was not much of a concern, and MS was just starting to spin up the east side. We saw a ton of tech workers in the campgrounds, living out of converted vans and school-buses, even back then.
It's defiantly doable on the cheap if you're determined and handy. Just takes a little getting used to, and a little more resourcefulness. Laundrymats are shitty, and scavenging for showers sucks. You still need to buy a night every week or two at a campground to dump your tanks and reup the water. When your ""Playing gypsy" everybody knows whats up after a day or two, and from time to time people call the cops if you stick to the same block or two.
My point is, you don't have to start with the 400k monstrosity. A used bus or large van/box-truck can be made livable for almost nothing- as long as the weather holds. Go for it man!
Having grown up like that, I would never do it with a family though. It was just the two of us, but living like that was pretty rough on teenage me.
These files have been floating around the net in various archives since they had been initially released. Last time I went looking I found them in an archive containing far worse than the files I was looking for.
Trying to say they are unavailable online only makes the download links multiply.
Anybody who wants these files already has them. All this does is make said files harder to collaborate on and share throughout the firearm and 3d printing community.
It's as if half the population forgot that some people like to make things that don't run on a computer, including guns, and banning things creates powerful black markets.
I suspect they are spinning it this way to manipulate you, but that in reality they are using it to undermine privacy protections. My suspicion is that this isn't about privacy. Think about it. This is about companies wanting to *prevent* states from passing their own privacy laws, because of things like states passing laws against using facial recognition. Congress will pass a law to keep states from doing that, and that law will give big data companies legal cover both for (1) continuing to use their massive existing amounts of data, which is a large corporate asset, in AI work and (2) collecting additional data.
There will be some minimal federal protections in the law, probably aimed at nominally anonymizing the data or not using it to make spam phone calls or something else people will like that won't affect the companies that want to use it. But those are there mostly to give cover to politicians so they can spin it as protecting privacy.
Just a guess that would be in keeping with how government works.
I can to say this very thing. Quoting to boost ACs visibility.
I'm sure they will call it something like the "PROTECTING INTERNET PRIVACY ACT". That will pretty much tell us everything we need to know.
No sympathy.
Wiat, whats the problem? 80% of requests are granted....
PLACE A SPACE-MISSILE BATTERY ON THE MOON. Stick some nukes in it for fun... cuz America.
Now you can deny anybody access to space until you run outta missiles. I guarantee this is going to happen eventually. Might as well get started today.
Or I guess we can wait for China to show us how it's done. Then once it's been used a few times, the huge amounts of way-to-small-to-track (WTSTT) space garbage will deny everybody access, and we can all just fester and die on our doomed planet.
The length of a US patent is 20 years. I think this is just about right where it is supposed to be. I don't like it, but I see that it is necessary.
I also like watching giants duke it out in court for the entire 20 years.
I think there are 2 reforms that need to happen with our patent system here in the states.
1. Use it or lose it. End patent trolling for good.
2. Limited applications. Half the reason we have so many dumbass patents (rounded corners, swipe left ect..) is because we allow giant companies to apply for patents en-mass. Apply for 500 frivolous patents a day. if even one gets approved a quarter, you can unleash the lawyers and recoup the cost of all of the failed applications and rent seek for another 20 years. If you can afford huge upfront cost, or already have the lawyers for doing your legit patents, you gotta keep em busy.
The same kids that cant seem to pay attention to a boring lecture are perfectly capable to playing the latest AA shooting game for hours on end without blinking (with almost no noticeable drop in accuracy) These younger people can intuit a brand new UI in a matter of seconds. They see patterns with a glance that takes us older nerds at least a small amount of concentration.
The way we learn has been evolving at a hyper-accelerated pace since the personal computer hit critical mass.
It's not the kids. It's not the games, or the screens, or the phones, or the media. It's the teaching methods.
The methods that are working are training the younger generation the twitch ability and quick thinking skills of a fighter pilot, all before they reach teenage-hood.
How is this not glaringly obvious to everybody looking at the "problem"?