THE INSURRECTION in Brasilia after the Brazilian election was the same as the USA Capitol Hill riots – an attack by people who were misled to believe that the election was stolen, a completely false lie.
There has been a long history of insurrections and leaders being overthrown but they were normally against tyrants and dictators, not elected people in a democracy.
The worry is that these events will lead others to endanger democracy and that must be stopped. Stand up for democracy and accept the results of fair election or face the consequences.
***
Cheats might prosper
The problem of cheating is one of humankind’s longest running evils with far too many examples to quote in a single letter, although if we just restricted ourselves to politicians cheating, we could fill this whole issue easily.
The latest variation is with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to write essays by people often gifted with natural stupidity. There are some obvious solutions to the problems of AI cheating, with the most efficient being knowing your students and their abilities.
A simple approach is to have students read their “own” work and then watch them crash. But of course you can’t embarrass students anymore. With math questions, it’s easier when you find two papers with the same miscalculations.
Teachers are, however, finding the ingenuity of students in developing new methods of cheating, usually by gossip or social media hints, increasing far beyond the notes up the sleeves approach and serious attention to the problem is needed.
As they say, “cheats never prosper” but the software companies offering cheating services will.
***
Send them home
The Elgin Marbles, actually the Parthenon Marbles, have been Greek for over two thousand years and still are in every way except location. They were taken – realistically stolen – by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s and most people believe these should be returned. But that is actually illegal under British Museum Act 1963 and offers to “lend” them are insulting.
One of the most obvious concerns that many museums have is that they would be emptied of items that were “acquired”, a weasel word for stolen, during times when the attitudes were different. Different attitudes do not condone theft.
Let’s return the thefts of the past to their rightful owners and put the past attitudes in the rubbish bin of time.
***
One down, nine to go
Antony Aumann, a religious studies and philosophy professor, found two students were cheating by using ChatGPT and when asked they admitted their guilt.
This seems an unusual case in that they were double cheating. The first case was by using the software to do their assignments, but the second was that they had obviously not listened to any of the content they were taught as Catholics have Commandment 9 – thou shalt not lie. And I am sure all of the other faiths and philosophies have a similar respect for honesty. They had clearly not learnt the course content or observed it.
It seems they may have missed the main messages that they were taught and I wonder how many others of the 10 commandments or their equivalents they have broken. (dfitzger@melbpc.org.au)/PN
