The Pursuit of Ignorance is an astounding indictment of our politically driven education methods. Stuart is a neuroscientist who specialized in olfactory experiments. He gives an excellent definition of geek, quotes the dead thinkers of the past prolifically, saying ‘dead people should not be excluded from the conversation’, and synthesizes science and philosophy.

Stuart reviews the state of fact generation, science publishing rates, and compares the study of optical neuroscience and walking, to paint a clear image of what is wrong with the way we go about pursuing knowledge. His humor is low key and wasted on a humorless audience. The focus of Stuart’s presentation is on the development of functional education rather than our current system of bulimic fact gorging and regurgitation.

Stuart Firestein, during this talk on the quest to formulate better questions and expand the field of what we know we don’t know, comes dangerously close to questioning the educational goals of our masters. He stopped at the edge of the grantless abyss and settled for reminding us that politicians are stupid, which I suppose the Autarch can tolerate coming from a brain scientist.

If you are into science-fiction you should checkout this presentation about getting beyond science-facts.