The reason you want people come to class is that good (even decent) professors react to their audience. While it's not practical in a 200 person class to answer every question during lecture, I (in my calculus teaching) am constantly monitoring the faces of those who are paying any attention at all. Do I need to give another example, or can I skip through this topic quickly and spend more time on the next?
Some could make the argument, I suppose, that since calculus doesn't change much, there should be some Platonic "Ideal Lecture" out there, and once that has been recorded, no lecture need ever be given again. However, the fact is that although calculus doesn't change, students do. The mathematical knowledge of entering students changes from quarter to quarter (the students who are "on track" typically need less review of the previous course's material), from year to year, and quite noticably from decade to decade.
Most professors do react to students, although it never occurs to them to let the students know that. This is a fundamental reason for having a human teacher as opposed to just books. Students who consistently do not attend class, or who attend without paying attention, are impairing the ability of the professor to do exactly this, and the class as a whole suffers.
OK, I know I'm late to the party, but as a former Math/CS double major who spent 3 years working in industry (CS), who is now 1 year from my Ph.D. in math, I feel compelled to add my 2 cents. In my experience, the most common non-academic math jobs generally fall into the following categories:
Actuarial
NSA
Statistics
The first two have gotten a lot of discussion here, but don't discount stats. There are a lot of opportunities there, and the work tends to involve very real-world applications of some fairly abstract math, which many people find appealing. The one caveat would be that a Masters degree is probably much more useful here than a B.S., but if it's a type of work you find interesting, you should consider it.
As pointed out on BoingBoing, Captain Copyright is apparently blessed with the power of copyright immunity. Text on his website appears to be directly lifted from Wikipedia, and of course much of the iconography has been around since before the Captain himself. Maybe the Captain's alter ego is a pirate? Arrrrrr...
A lot of posts so far suggest that psychological and liability issues will make this completely impossible, but I wonder about that. Couldn't a decently-made marketing video showing the computer controlled car outperforming $TOP_NASCAR_DRIVER be very effective? (I'm picturing Jeff Gordon... stuffed kittens... explosion of cotton... fun!) Especially if this is immediately followed by a scene of young, pretty, could-be-your-children types stumbling out of a bar and trying to decide which car to take home.
As far as liability goes, insurance companies would be happy (I would think) to take full responsibility for computer/human accidents, and split responsibility for computer/computer accidents; especially if it meant many fewer accidents to cover. These companies have historically been strong supporters of seat belt laws, anti-lock brakes, and a myriad of other developments which took some freedom/control from the individual driver, but resulted in safer conditions in the aggregate. Why wouldn't they push for the adoption of smart-cars as well? Of course, technological issues remain, but I think the human issues can be overcome.
OK, so I know this is/. and I shouldn't expect anyone to RTFA, but so far the majority of comments from the Bush++ crowd are complaining "I call BS! Soros is a liberal!" Although Soros is definitely anti-Bush (calling him a liberal may not be exactly accurate) the point is it doesn't matter. If you don't like what he has to say, refute it! What substantive statements of his thesis do you disagree with? <Irony> After all, this is slashdot where reasoned discussions and calm minds always prevail. </Irony>
I first would like to thank you for helping me discover SF/Fantasy. Books like A Spell for Chameleon, Macroscope and Tarot introduced me to characters who solved their problems by thinking critcally about them--a trait I consciously tried to mimic and have never lost. (Since then, my critical thinking has led me to vastly different conclusions than yours on many fronts, but that's a different matter.):)
Anyway, this being a technical web site (nominally anyway) I will ask a (nominally) technical question. As a Linux user and sometime writer, my biggest problem has been with the quality of the fonts. As someone who spends hours a day staring at the screen (4? 6?) I would think this would be more of an issue for you. Do you find that fonts under Linux are lower quality than under Microsoft? If so, is it enough to bother you? What font and size do you typically write in?
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The reason you want people come to class is that good (even decent) professors react to their audience. While it's not practical in a 200 person class to answer every question during lecture, I (in my calculus teaching) am constantly monitoring the faces of those who are paying any attention at all. Do I need to give another example, or can I skip through this topic quickly and spend more time on the next?
Some could make the argument, I suppose, that since calculus doesn't change much, there should be some Platonic "Ideal Lecture" out there, and once that has been recorded, no lecture need ever be given again. However, the fact is that although calculus doesn't change, students do. The mathematical knowledge of entering students changes from quarter to quarter (the students who are "on track" typically need less review of the previous course's material), from year to year, and quite noticably from decade to decade.
Most professors do react to students, although it never occurs to them to let the students know that. This is a fundamental reason for having a human teacher as opposed to just books. Students who consistently do not attend class, or who attend without paying attention, are impairing the ability of the professor to do exactly this, and the class as a whole suffers.
--
Think! It ain't illegal yet!
George Clinton
- Actuarial
- NSA
- Statistics
The first two have gotten a lot of discussion here, but don't discount stats. There are a lot of opportunities there, and the work tends to involve very real-world applications of some fairly abstract math, which many people find appealing. The one caveat would be that a Masters degree is probably much more useful here than a B.S., but if it's a type of work you find interesting, you should consider it.Best of luck!
--
Think! It ain't illegal yet.
George Clinton
As pointed out on Boing Boing, Captain Copyright is apparently blessed with the power of copyright immunity. Text on his website appears to be directly lifted from Wikipedia, and of course much of the iconography has been around since before the Captain himself. Maybe the Captain's alter ego is a pirate? Arrrrrr...
--
Think! It ain't illegal yet!
George Clinton
As far as liability goes, insurance companies would be happy (I would think) to take full responsibility for computer/human accidents, and split responsibility for computer/computer accidents; especially if it meant many fewer accidents to cover. These companies have historically been strong supporters of seat belt laws, anti-lock brakes, and a myriad of other developments which took some freedom/control from the individual driver, but resulted in safer conditions in the aggregate. Why wouldn't they push for the adoption of smart-cars as well? Of course, technological issues remain, but I think the human issues can be overcome.
Think! It ain't illegal yet.
--George Clinton
Think! It ain't illegal yet.
--George Clinton
You: Anything?
Her: ANYthing!
You (in a whisper, close to her ear)
(Pause. Look nervously around for observers.)
Think! It ain't illegal yet!
-George Clinton
Mr. Anthony,
:)
I first would like to thank you for helping me discover SF/Fantasy. Books like A Spell for Chameleon, Macroscope and Tarot introduced me to characters who solved their problems by thinking critcally about them--a trait I consciously tried to mimic and have never lost. (Since then, my critical thinking has led me to vastly different conclusions than yours on many fronts, but that's a different matter.)
Anyway, this being a technical web site (nominally anyway) I will ask a (nominally) technical question. As a Linux user and sometime writer, my biggest problem has been with the quality of the fonts. As someone who spends hours a day staring at the screen (4? 6?) I would think this would be more of an issue for you. Do you find that fonts under Linux are lower quality than under Microsoft? If so, is it enough to bother you? What font and size do you typically write in?
Thanks,
Jason