Musing on the essential skills, I wonder whether we're witnessing the species generating a new one that doesn't fit into any of the categories above, perhaps fueled by AI. I've no idea what it may look like, but it feels as if there's something just round the corner that will make the industrial revolution pale into insignificance. So the new kids on the block may need not just another kind of skill, but a whole new category of skill to manage their future.
Michael Tomasello and his associates have done some really interesting work in this area, specifically the role of play in developing the foundations for understanding and dealing with rules. There's one great book chapter by Tomasello and his then-student (I think) Hannes Rakoczy where they argue that childhood imagination play builds the meta-representational and social skills for dealing with institutional reality in general — laws, norms, roles, and status functions. So the decline of play has some sobering long-term implications for things like the rule of law and the preservation of core institutions.
What I would love to know is does evolutionary psychology mention what play is for adults? In a state where we have learned everything there is to survive, do you think restorative practices will fall under this?
Thanks so much for this, Peter.
Musing on the essential skills, I wonder whether we're witnessing the species generating a new one that doesn't fit into any of the categories above, perhaps fueled by AI. I've no idea what it may look like, but it feels as if there's something just round the corner that will make the industrial revolution pale into insignificance. So the new kids on the block may need not just another kind of skill, but a whole new category of skill to manage their future.
Michael Tomasello and his associates have done some really interesting work in this area, specifically the role of play in developing the foundations for understanding and dealing with rules. There's one great book chapter by Tomasello and his then-student (I think) Hannes Rakoczy where they argue that childhood imagination play builds the meta-representational and social skills for dealing with institutional reality in general — laws, norms, roles, and status functions. So the decline of play has some sobering long-term implications for things like the rule of law and the preservation of core institutions.
What I would love to know is does evolutionary psychology mention what play is for adults? In a state where we have learned everything there is to survive, do you think restorative practices will fall under this?
I think 'play' is also where we learn to bend/break rules too.