I grew up in the middle of nowhere. I read all, and I mean all, of the science and math books in my local library (and nearly all of the Scientific American magazines as well.) Because this was before the internet was ubiquitous these were the only resources I had. These days I often wonder how my life would have been different if I would have had access to open courses like the one described in this article.
There is one part of me that thinks this will change the entire landscape of learning for rural kids. On the other hand, by not having total access to the entire world of knowledge, I was forced to read and re-read the few books I did have. Luckily these were broad enough to give me at least some preparation for my undergraduate days (and led to some strange things like learning hyperbolic trig before regular trig from a first edition of Tayor and Wheeler’s “Spacetime Physics.”) But certainly I would have really dug the lectures described in the above article, and perhaps I would be able to even keep up with all the crazy smart people who are hear at this conference.
The Quantum Pontiff
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