-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Everybody needs help -- it's in the nature of the human species. Rocks need only go with the flow of natural forces. We, however, are free to some extent and must make decisions (or end up going with the same flow of forces). To survive, we must be able to solve problems and this means we have to learn new skills, which is to say we must learn new principles and construct new mechanisms to perform them. This is especially the case in light of today's financial collapse and economic hard times, the longer-term outlook of which is not good.

Today, the world financial system is falling apart. "Moneyness" has lost its allure. Credit is scarce. The federal government is the only real provider, with trillions of funny money. Companies are fast going out of business. Jobs are being lost in the millions. Welfare roles are growing off the page and out of sight. We may get a short term respite from projected stimulus packages, but we still need to improve our skills and learn how best to train them -- we need to produce more goods, not just buy and sell credit. That's a job for you and the new science of skills. It's heavy-duty stuff. To make learning easier and quicker we need to develop context-based simulations for study and training -- we need representations of the environments of the skills. I've done that for tennis. Do the same in your own area of interest. The time is now.

Babies need all the help they can get to make their way in the world. Starting out life with no supporting skills, with nerves, bones, and muscles growing by the hour, they have no sense of efficiency or inefficiency, right or wrong, or good or bad. They acquire skills and distinctions almost at random, as growth occurs. To avoid weak, ineffective habits they need plenty of guidance. But good ideas are hard to come by. It's your job to create ideas and use the science of skills to test them in simulation.

At the other end of the line, seniors, too, need all the help they can get, because the wheels are starting to come off the wagon. Eyesight is failing. Memory is fading. Coordination is suffering. Balance is wavering. Attention is less secure. Even the strongest muscles are getting weaker. New skills are needed and old skills have to be remodeled. New and improved, simulation-added assistive technology is in great demand but in short supply. Now is the time to shine!

And in between, school kids need every bit of help learning to read and write, add and subtract, multiply and divide, to lift themselves out of weak skills and get ready with new ones for jobs when they finish their studies and go out into the world on their own. They could use a lot of "learning by doing" in benign environments to get ready. Make up your own scenarios and simulations -- kids need skills almost everywhere.

Even working men and women can use help, re-enforcing or restructuring their skills to protect what jobs they have, trying to keep up with rapid changes and stay off the roles of unemployment and out of the soup lines, protecting themselves as well as they can, dealing with the future. We all need information today, to deal with tomorrow. There are thousands of mechanisms -- tools and equipment -- that have to be used expertly in skills. Decide on some and build simulations to help workers learn how to use them.

Especially in need of assistance are the unemployed individuals who are looking for work. They need to develop the skills necessary to acquire gainful practice. New and more productive skills, with their accompanying technology and instrumentation, are required, bringing the science of skills to the forefront, again. Focus on some and build representative contexts to study them.

Unfortunately, many unemployed people don't have skills that are adequate for today's demanding and highly competitive workplace and perhaps can't learn them. They especially need assistance. Of all kinds.

For all of the above categories, medical patients in particular need all the help we can give them. Many patients encounter painful, if not traumatic, conditions in their battle with injuries or illnesses and are caught without coping skills. They have to learn sharply new skills in quick order just to survive their ordeal. Important gains are being made here.

If you're inclined to help in some way and have specific individuals and skills in mind, you might wish to develop your own simulations to enhance learning the skills. There is no formal procedure for carrying out the project, but you could follow my example. First lay out the context in which your skills would be applied. For the context to be meaningful, you would need to identify its characteristics relative to the skills, rank them in order of importance, and decide which of them to include in your design. You might also identify the trajectories of the skills and formulate their dynamics.

An example of a simulation that comes to mind is to plot out the sequence of known or projected events of a criminal investigation, a homicide for example. Such a sequence is a flow of events, a trajectory, and is called a timeline. It helps by giving investigators more coherent knowledge of the context of the crime. It sharpens the dynamics. Plus it can be used to break contrived alibis and find inconsistencies in accounts of witnesses.

Other instances can be developed for transportation skills, such as learning to drive a bus. In agriculture the vehicle could be a tractor, or harvester. In medicine, simulations can be applied in learning to use many investigative instruments, like x-ray machines. Family matters, too, offer many training possibilities. One might focus specifically on sexual skills, a subject of much concern and importance, In the business world, running your own shop offers many study possibilities. The same goes for handling personal investments.

Another area for study and possible training not to be ignored is the matter of the flow of fluid into and out of the bladder, particularly involving urodynamics. According to Wikipedia, the free Internet encyclopedia:

You can even simulate the price action of stocks. Pick a company stock or an index of stocks you might be interested in and plot the prices over time. Use fundamental or technical market analysis to uncover price patterns and project forward to represent future prices and make decisions based on the projections. More examples.

You might see a similarity here with the dynamics of the "flow" of a tennis ball from one side of the court to the other, to and from a racket. In both instances you would be involved with functional disorders and attempts to resolve them.

For simulation to be effective in sexual skills, it's necessary to formulate the dynamics and establish the appropriate principles and mechanisms. Indeed, what is the real context of the skills and what are its inherent properties? What perceptual and motor components make up the skills? A lot of interesting work is needed here. For some background, see for instance: The Enlightened Sex Manual: Sexual Skills for the Superior Lover, by David Deida.

As part of the overall structure of these or other programs, you can include problems for the user to work out, feedback for the user to check results, and special tutorials to help the user understand any pertinent theory and learn how to use the program mechanisms.

As background for your constructions you should consult my tennis tutorial games for pertinent suggestions. You might also consult with organizations building simulations as mentioned here. For financial support you might try sending grants packages to various agencies of the federal government or to relevant foundations.

Also, I'm available if you personally need help with the work. You can write to me to ask your questions and I'll do what I can to assist you. 

Harry Pappo

3720 Emerald, T3

Torrance, CA 90503

You can also help yourself. One important way is simply to realize that everything we do expresses one or another skill and that every skill involves principles of purposive action and mechanisms that make actions possible. Strictly speaking, no two of us are exactly alike, either structurally or functionally. We don't necessarily do the same things or do things the same way. Nor should we. Sometimes we get down on ourselves or feel miserable because we can't do certain things as efficiently, say, as others do them, or that we are deprived of certain behavior mechanisms. Whatever handicaps we might have, we can still adopt a positive attitude. It's here that recognition of principles and mechanisms can change your thinking and improve your outlook. You don't need to be discouraged, because we all have limits. You only need to see, and enjoy, the fact that you have your own skills to perform and can always improve them.

You can also help yourself -- as well as many others -- by building simulations of a wide variety of situations that you have to prepare for. Starting a business, for instance. This could involve different activities and many skills. Principles and mechanisms have to be defined and carefully developed. Such planning in advance can save time and money and avoid serious problems down the line.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problem Solving, Problem Solving Skills, Decision Making, Optimization, Optimization Theory, Value Theory, Utility Theory, Theory of Choice, Optimal Decision Theory, Perceptual Tools, Problem Solving Tools

Book Reading Skills, Perception Skills, Sensory Skills, Sensory Processes, Motor Processes, Sensory-Motor Processes, Sensory Functions, Human Receptors, Proprioceptors, Cognitive Maps, Consciousness

Investigation, Methods of Inquiry, Observation, Scientific Inquiry, Search Tools, Measurement, Objective Measurement, Criminal Investigation, Forensic Science, Searching for the Truth

Pattern Recognition, Perception, Objective Perception, Perceptual Information, Verbal Information, Types of Information, Perception of Motion, Vision, Surveillance, Interrogation, Biometrics, Intuition, Memory, Brain & Mind, Appearance and Reality, Sight Unseen

Visual Tracking and Interception, Intercepting Trajectories, Intercepting Ball Trajectories, Perceive and Respond, Perception and Action

Experiments, Experiments in Perception, Experiments in Visual Perception, Experiments in Motion Perception, Scientific Creativity

Brain and Mind

Supporting Materialss

Top of Page