The most infuriating proof of the perverse nature of evolution may be the Interface Problem. It happens to be responsible for most things wrong with the world.
After bureaucracy, the clearest example is software (just one random evil is how you can't right-click on Yahoo Search results to copy text). As time goes by, complex computer programs seem to be getting more evil, at least for new users. Large programs are full of secret traps, though not all are deliberate. And they're not getting better.
This is completely separate from my endless experience of how computers keep freezing and crashing. The way webpages won't load because of all the adware is also demonic.
One clear example is called the 'Gimp', which is just about unusable. Cloaked in non-overlapping labyrinths of inscrutable obfuscation, gnomic obscurantists perfected a closed macrocosmos of subconscious barriers to make it impossible to edit images. It's easier to visualize the intersection of an eight dimensional tesseract than to figure out the hidden tool buttons.
Earlier versions of popular programs weren't completely impenetrable yet. Once, they were simple enough to figure out to some degree.
Those who have painfully mastered the secret art of programming may not believe in usable software. They had to suffer to make it this far, and now it's the new users' turn.
It's an educational problem. Why are most persons poor? Motivation, aptitude, and IQ are all genetic, but poor folks also lack information they can understand.
Currently the political left is demanding public education spending in the tera-dollar range, but ignores the fact that schools suck. The solution is what causes the problem. Schools don't just ignore controversial truths (like average racial and social differences in preferred learning styles and other things), but also all the undefined knowledge that students must learn indirectly. Learning barriers multiply as a subject expands. Few students enjoy traditional roundabout, contextual teaching methods. Perhaps achievement requires feeling superior to the other students. For some it takes pain to form permanent memories. Those who can't handle it fall behind.
Could there be a way to increase human IQ without changing human genetics? A method to perfectly describe subjects so that anyone could learn anything in a series of precise steps.
It would have to be like injecting vocabulary, databases, rule-sets and ways of thinking directly into the student's mind, whether they want it or not.
There is virtually no research, nothing to upset the status quo. Most high-skill or at least high-status professions require a decade of expensive, painful training.
The first test of a new education method would be a way to teach touch typing, a skill requiring the student to tie their hands into magic knots. Keyboards were deliberately designed to slow down typing.
There are only a few signs education can be improved, fewer ways to alter memory and perception without drugs:
The 'spacing effect' forces students to remember facts by repeating lessons at measured intervals but does not make learning easier.
It's possible to change long-term memories by re-imagining them.
Recordings played while the student is asleep may slightly help them remember word lists.
Hypnosis is a form of intense concentration which might help students pay attention.
The mind remains unknown teritory, but it may be possible to manipulate how high-level information is integrated. By looking in a double mirror while performing motions, it's possible to cure 'phantom pains' in amputated limbs.
For now, the most useful improvement may be to write the easiest possible explanation of every bit of knowledge, the ultimate metaphor for any subject.
Software should be broken down into component sub-programs, all tools clearly separated for new users. Simple to understand interfaces would make programs easier, but with long lists of functions.
Every program needs descriptions written by outsiders. The hard part is knowing what to leave out. The really hard part is to include what's too obvious to mention.
There is a vast difference between discovering a skill, understanding it, and practicing it.
The most skilled chefs are not the best food experimenters. Being able to understand science (or music), and actually doing them are very different. The educational-industrial complex provides only the second option.
* Popular science documentaries are the most infuriating. Whenever they get interesting, they change the subject like Sarah Silverman. From 'saddle shaped' hyperbolic geometry to superstrings to DNA spirals, Discovery/PBS use the same few tired metaphors.
The simplest possible description at any level must assume many things about the student. Some of the most neglected ideas could be introduced in comics and movies (like the public service campaign suggested in "The natural depravity of mankind", Lundberg). More detailed versions would have fewer readers at each level.
* The opposite of science may be art, which also seems to be about making things more confusing. Most artistic insights are wasted. Readers might prefer articles condensing the knowledge of many books, but authors would outlaw such summaries.
A Proposal:
Someday, someone may invent a workable and above all usable human mind extension. The first version won't do more than record and edit short lists, but this simple tool alone could double productivity. Unlike a notebook, it would be impossible to lose, and the data would automatically be sorted and analyzed.
What works for individuals may work for groups. Human skills are split among many specialists with little in common. The future may not belong to individuals, but to new types of groups.
If better interface software can be invented, individuals may then be connected into large 'virtual minds'. No single member would fully understand what was going on, but the collective would.
The danger is that once society becomes self-aware at some level, it may start making decisions none of its members understand. The ultimate outcome might be something like communism.
The best hard SF novel ever written: Infinite Thunder by Jack Arcalon.
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