GenWise Forum

Hello and welcome to our 'Engineering, Technology, Design and Making' forum. How do you do? :-) Or, how on earth, did you do that? :-) We want to know the hows, the whats, the wheres, the whens and the whys - and of course the whynots of what we want to do and have already done. This is because, all of us have this bee on the bonnet about things in general, and material things in particular - though we may be not be articulating the effects of the aforementioned bee all the time. Learning about how things work and how to make things work are the fuels that project the human imagination - and so, of course, we all want to learn to do things, um, not merely do things - but make things - learning from each other, sharing ideas, opinions and tricks, discovering the endless possibilities that the universe affords us. We want to be asking questions, get answers, share our exhilarations and momentary setbacks while all the time forging ahead... working with our hands and brains, and co-ordinating our actions, not mere words... We tinker, therefore we are. Yes. Agreed. But then, we also would have this closure mentality with respect to what we make. Double Yes. We won't give up just like that. We would keep trying multi. Okay? And yeah, this forum is open for any discussion of reasonable (or unreasonable) ideas involving engineering & design. Let us learn not only to 'do' design and make things - but also to develop our capabilities & to articulate our ideas meaningfully, precisely & accurately, take feedback and do polite feedforwards. We can also discuss various aspects of working with our children and the children in us. Let us push up the average levels of happiness in our knowable universe. That is, let us maintain the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) high in the forum. BTW, I am Ramjee - who will pretend to moderate this forum along with my great & indefatigable  co-conspirator Murali. Thanks, and we are sincerely looking forward (and backward) towards having very satisfying and exciting times here! :-) ramjee.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/14/health/scientists-warn-humanity/index.htm It would be great to hear your views on this Radha. Thanks. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/14/health/scientists-warn-humanity/index.htm

Hello! I am Radha Gopalan, and I will be moderating this forum on the Planetary Web where we will explore the hidden connections that create the complex web of life. The challenge often for all of us is - where do we begin? is there a book or website that will explain all this or any other resources? What about school curricula? Is it even possible to have one subject in school curricula addressing the complexities of life? During our discussions at GenWise, as we were grappling with some of these questions, designing our programmes, wondering about how we could expand the dialogue with young people and adults, we thought an open forum might be one way to go. This forum is a dialogue which means all of us are learners. While we may post a few thoughts, readings, videos etc., to start the dialogue, the forum's effectiveness rests on your active participation. So let's try and make this a vibrant space where all of us can collectively try and get our heads around some of the complex issues unfolding around us: what is happening to our food systems? why is there an agrarian crisis in India when there are so many communities growing diverse food even under drought conditions? if I stop using plastic how will it help? does it matter what brand of clothes I wear or where I holiday? why is public transport in most of our cities so abysmal? why are all our cities getting flooded with one day's rain? what is a good quality of life? Often we don't have time in our school schedules or maybe not enought resources individually at home to explore these questions. However when we do this collectively as a community we may be able to make some sense of it: unravelling this complex web may present tremendous possibilities leading to hope and well-being for the future. As we embark on this exploration let's remember to listen to all points of view, respect each other's opinions and dialogue to learn.