Did you know?

After watching this video, the way I view education at GBN, as well as throughout America has changed. Some specific facts stood out in front of others for a number of reasons.

The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ is greater than the total population of the United States.

To me, this fact seems to be trying to compare India's education system to America's; however, I found it misleading. A followup fact reads:

India has more honors kids than America has kids.

Due to the fact that India has over a billion people and the United States only has approximately 300 million, it would make sense that the 25% of India's population with the highest IQ would be greater than the 25% of America's population with the highest IQ, as well as the entire population of America -- that's just simple math. However, I do think that this fact brings up an important point: America is falling behind when it comes to education; we aren't even in the top ten when it comes to certain subjects.

It is estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.

This fact was one that especially fascinated me. In the 21st century, we typically see newspapers at least once per day, and usually we take them for granted. We may read just one section, or in my case, the comics, and overlook the rest. Because of the lack of modern technology in the 18th century, people only got information from what others have told them, or by learning it on their own. This shows how far we have come as a country within the past three centuries.

For students starting a 4 year technical degree . . . half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

This fact is interesting, mostly because it makes you wonder if what you would learn in your first year of study is even worth it, since it may be outdated by their third year. To me, it would be worth it; the information that you learn can always be revised, and just be added to your previous knowledge.

NTT Japan has successfully tested a fiber optic cable that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fiber.

The idea that a fiber optic cable can be at as high of a speed as 14 trillion bits (14 terabits/Tb) per second is mind boggling to me, especially since 10 years or so ago, data traveled over the internet at speeds of 56 kb/s. More recently in America, most internet connection speeds are at a maximum of 10 Gb/s (10 billion bits) if wired or 540 Mb/s (540 million bits) if wireless. This is incredibly minute compared to this new optic fiber, which can go at such fast speeds.

Quite honestly, although the information in this film is fascinating, it make me view honors chemistry or any other of my classes differently. However, it did make me think about the future and how quickly technology is changing. Another fact that I didn't mention before was the one about a supercomputer exceeding the computational abilities of the human brain, as well as the entire human species in the not-so-distant future. If this technology is going to exist within the next 40-50 years, It makes me wonder what sort of technology will exist in 60 years? 100 years? Will robots one day rule the earth?! We won't know the answer to these questions... at least not for now.