Education, A Contrast between Western and Eastern

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Seven countries. This is the number of my educational exposure to different countries. I went to a university in Japan and U.K. My kids went to school in Singapore, Japan, and also attending to American school. Also here in Taiwan, I have opportunities to talk to parents or kids who studied in either China or Taiwan. My wife was a teacher in Zimbabwe. Based on my high exposure of different countries’ educations, I would like to share two stories, to contrast between Western and Eastern.

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The first story is about elementary school education. The very first question, which being rendered in American school, grade one science is, what is the difference between Hypothesize and Infer? Can anyone answer this? The answer is, hypothesize is not based on facts, but infer is. In science, everything is a hypothesis, not a fact until it is proven with an experiment, in a way anyone can induce the same outcome. Once we turn a hypothesis into a fact with an experiment, then we can forecast future or do some reasoning based on the fact. This is “infer“. In science there is an order. 1) Hypothesize, 2) experiment to turn a hypothesis into a fact and 3) infer based on the fact. Other topics covered are, opinion and fact, cause and effect, compare and contrast, so on.

In American school, there is a vivid focus on understanding concepts and use the concepts to identify facts, instead of memorizing facts for exams. The next story is about university education. I studied Economics in Japan and UK. In Japan, professors say, “I understand Keynes”, “I understand Marx”. What is wrong with it? In U.K. Professors say, “I will create a better economic theory than Keynes”, “I will go beyond Marx”. Professors in U.K. are oriented to challenge the current status quo and develop economics further. On the contrary, some professors in Japan, their focus is trying to understand what has been developed, translate them. As a result, professors in Japan take those as authorities, respect them, and try to use their authorities to establish their own.

I still remember in U.K. a professor told students, Economics is a social science, there will be no absolute right or wrong, so write something in exams, and then you might get some scores! His remake strikes me to realize how much free space there are with social sciences, and it was a quite contrasting with an authoritarian attitude of some in Japan.

Conclusion

The two stories highlighted the vivid contrast between Western and Eastern education. The difference is not superficial, but fundamental, rooted from the difference of culture and history. One is more focusing memorizing facts, and the other is focusing on understanding concepts to find out facts. Another example was, one is more focusing to follow the path of forerunners, the other is more focusing on to create a new path. I believe these differences in education will influence upon how people see the world, and it is important to know about it for mutual understanding across different countries.

Block chain, the idea to replace central authority

Opening

In IT, there is a major revolution every 10 years.  Personal computer in 80s, the Internet in 90s, mobiles in 00s, and I would say “block chain” in 2010s.

All of these revolutions, it was very difficult to understand at the beginning, until we see its applications. We are at the very exciting time, which is similar to the beginning of the Internet with block chain, I would like to share what is “block chain” and why it is so importance. 

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What is block chain?

Block chain is an innovative way to prevent data from being modified or copied without restricting access to the data.  Data in a computer, by its nature, is very easy to copy.  All data in computer is just a series of 1 and 0 patterns.  If we can replicate the exact same patterns of the series of 1 and 0, the original and the copied ones are identical.

Only way to prevent the copy is to establish a single point of authority. Even if the data has exactly the  same matching pattern of 1 and 0, if the authority does not hold the data, we see the data is not genuine nor true.  In this way, there is a systemic risk of having the single point of failure.

But Block chain is different, because each of participants is collectively supporting the integrity of data in a de-centralized environment, where anyone can access through the Internet. 

The attributes of block chain can be summarized into three attributes: 1) no way to copy or modify once recorded;  2) Anyone can access to the record through the Internet; and 3) no central authorities needed. In short, “block chain” is all about the revolutionary recording method in the Internet. Therefore, the application of block chain is enormous, for example, a) registry of property, b) keeping various certificates, such as marriage certificate and c) various contracts.

Another example is car sharing. You have a car ownership recorded in block chain. And you can transfer the ownership only for one hour, by recording the transaction in block chain, to record another transaction to get back the ownership after one hour. This is not currently  practical because we use physical paper and central authorities.  But because block chain is accessible through programing and the Internet, it is possible.

So, can we say the block chain is already real? Yes. The first adaptation of block chain was “Bitcoin”. Bitcoin is using block chain as public accounting ledger to record every transaction and serves as money. Bitcoin is only the beginning and the tip of the big iceberg, as the use of the idea of block chain can create similar money. Bitcoin is important in a way to provide the answer to this question, “Is block chain workable?”

I think the answer yes, since “Money” is the best example to test  “block chain”; how robust is it against hacking, since everyone can be motivated to copy or modify it?

Closing

 “Block chain” is a breakthrough idea to record data with the three attributes: 1) no way to copy or modify, once recorded;  2) anyone can access to the record through the Internet; and 3) no central authorities needed. Since block chain is an algorithm, like “mathematical formula”, there is no way to remove it from the world. Thus, it is the future.

Discovery of “A” and “The”

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My topic is the discovery of “A” and “The”.   What did I discover?   The answer is “civilisation”,   western. eastern and modern civilisation. Today, I am the tour guide to take you through the three civilisations

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In order to understand the three. Firstly we need to understand the difference between “a” and ”the”?  Let us begin with an example, a ball and the ball. What is the difference?  The answer is, a ball means, it can be any ball. It can be a baseball ball, a basketball, or another basketball.  On the other hand, when we say “the” ball, it must be specific and unique enough to identify the ball as only one.  

Again, the ball, with “the",  has to have some contexts to be identified as the “only one”.   If only one, then no choices.  That is why, we call “the Earth“, “the Sun", and "the Moon”, because these are the only ones, no alternatives. Once we understand the difference, let us start the tour to walk through the three civilisations.

A God and the God

The first is the Western Civilisation. My first opportunity to realise how important it is, the difference between “a” and “the”, was through studying theology. Theology means religious studies.  Some religions say, "the God”.  Some regions say, "a God”. When we say, "the God”, which means the God is unique, and only one. When we say "a God”, we expect there are other gods, so we have a choice of Gods.  If you do not like one, you can ignore one, and choose another one. If there is the only one God, “the God”, we do not have any choices.  No matter how good or bad, whatever righteous or evil happen to us, it is governed by the same.   This is very difficult to understand, how come two extremes can be carried by the same?  Yes, this challenge shaped the Western Civilisation. 

A Buddha and the Buddha

The second is the Eastern Civilisation, The word “Buddha”, in India, sanskrit, it is “a” Buddha, which means anyone who attained a certain state. Thus, a Buddha is a human. However, when it is translated to a language, which has no “a” and “the”, it was interpreted as “the” Buddha. If it is “the” Buddha, no matter how we put effort, we cannot become the next Buddha  If so, it is logical to worship, instead of trying to become the next one. The nature of the Buddhism has been totally changed, because of the lack of “a” and “the” in some languages. This shaped the Eastern Civilisation. 

The Internet

The last is about the Modern Civilisation, "the Internet".  Why not "an Internet”, but "the Internet”?  Because, no matter where we access, from Africa to Taiwan, the Internet is the same network. Is this a natural consequence? No. 

At the beginning of the history of the internet, there were four networks of four universities, these were running independently, not inter-connected. And then, someone started believing strongly that all the networks could be all connected up as one, should exist as the one, started calling as “the Internet".

Imagine if each network is not connected, closed to each other, by country to country. And how much human being are benefitted by having “the Internet”, instead of having “an Internet". This is the collective effort by believing Networks should not be closed to each other and calling it as “the Internet” . And This is particularly important when there are strong orientation to close their network in certain countries.

Closing

I hope these three examples give us a glimpse of how important the difference between “a” and “the”. And how  important to keep our awareness of the difference. English is the great language, systematically embedded this awareness, and it is our great pleasure learning it.

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc675