PSA for LW futurists/academics
Rutgers was planning to offer a “Future of Humankind” course via Coursera, but I received this announcement today:
“Hello Future of Humankind registrants,
It is with great sadness, that we must inform you that due to the untimely death of James Martin, we will be unable to offer the Future of Humankind course as had originally been planned. Rutgers University is interested in developing similar course material, and we will keep you abreast of any updates with developments in our courses.
Thank you for your understanding,
The Future of Humankind Course Staff”
Average Coursera offerings are in tens of thousands, and this might be a chance to make a large impact. Proper contacts with Rutgers could be easily established, I also have some direct contacts at Coursera.
(I’m specifically thinking about you http://lesswrong.com/user/James_Miller)
I do teach a course on the Economics of Future Technology at Smith College. I would be willing to explore this idea with people at Coursera if you want to put them in touch with me.
Sorry, social question, if you’re at Smith College, are you the one who gives presentations about future lifestyles or alien races at ConBust every year?
No. I’ve never been to ConBust.
It’s worth thinking about the risks and benefits of exposing futurist ideas to a larger audience that may not be especially intelligent or rational.
What are your thoughts on this? One argument line is the curious kids are going to learn ’bout birds and bees one way or another, better it be from a good source than youtube.
In before someone complains about the font and gets 5 upvotes for it.