Rather, such new experiences negate it altogether,
making it relatively irrelevant. Freed from the past, people
notice that sometimes the known, expressed in texts, obliterates
a better understanding of the present by introducing a
pre-understanding of the future that prevents new and effective
human practical experiences. The second surprise comes from the
realization that means other than those based on literacy better
support the current stage of our continuous self- constitution,
and that these new means have a different underlying structure.
Searle, among many others, remarked that, "Like it or not, the
natural sciences are perhaps our greatest single intellectual
achievement as human beings, and any education that neglects
this fact is to that extent defective." What is not clearly
stated is the fact that sciences emerged as such achievements
once the ancillary relation to language and literacy was
overcome. Mathematization of science and engineering, the focus
on computational knowledge, the need to address design aspects of
human activity (within sociology, business, law, medicine,
etc.), all belong to alternative modes of explanation that make
literate speculation less and less effective. They also opened
new horizons for hypotheses in astronomy, genetics, anthropology.
Cognitive skills are required in the new pragmatic context
together with meta-cognitive skills: how to control one's own
learning, for example, in a world of change, variety,
distributed effort, mediated work, interconnection, and
heterogeneity.
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