259
end of the training as 4% of the students completed the courses on average. Around 80% of
those enrolling for the courses already had a
degree. Other online courses ended with similar
or even more disappointing results. Three quarters of those studying higher algebra (90% of
those arriving directly from secondary school)
failed the exam. Students of MOOCs as a whole
performed much worse than the full-time students of San Jose State University, and the issue
of identity of the participants was also raised and
not without reasons. Many students tried to
obtain the certificate of successfully completing
the course cheating. Websites soon appeared that
offered successful certificates of the online
courses for payment. Thus, the leaders of
Stanford University were concerned that students
living at various places in the world were impossible to identify, therefore the university issued a
simple statement of accomplishment instead of a
certificate for those successfully completing the
online courses.
It seems like online training has to overcome a
number of difficulties before becoming widespread. Ford (2015) explained the rough start of
MOOCs with the saying “it is tough getting
started” and considers emerged problems can be
solved. Related to online education, the authors
mention the universal statement of Kaku (2011)
regarding human nature referred to as the caveman principle. This term suggests that basic
characteristics and instincts of the human race
never changed since the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
This is associated with online education that the
vast majority of students still respect more the
direct relationship with teachers than that with a
computer. This concern could be solved if participants of online courses can make personal
contact with tutors now and then discussing their
learning issues. This, of course, also meant that
teachers would be needed in the future.
6.7.5 Meadows’ Team
on Sustainable Development
The authors think that scientific work of the highest standard focusing on the sustainable society
was carried out by the research team of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology led by the
Meadows couple. Considering and modifying
several times the global quantitative system
model of the society, the team came to the valuable conclusions the most important of which
were described in Sect. 2.6. In their book published in 2004 (Meadows et al. 2004), the criteria
of sustainable society and the general principles
to be followed by humanity to implement sustainable development are discussed. The essence
of their message is summarised in the following.
Based on systems thinking, a society can be
considered sustainable if information, social and
institutional mechanisms exist that control continuously the positive feedback loops resulting in
exponentially increasing population and capital.
In the interest of social sustainability population, capital and technology has to be harmonised
to make financial living standard adequate and
secure for all and distributed fairly. To implement
material and energetic sustainability the three
rules of Herman E. Daly have to be met by operation of the economy (Daly 2005):
• renewable resources must be used no faster
than the rate at which they regenerate;
• non-renewable resources must be used no
faster than renewable substitutes for them can
be put into place;
• pollution and waste must be emitted no faster
than natural systems can absorb, recycle or
render them harmless.
Sustainable society would foster progress
(quality change) and would use financial growth
as a carefully considered tool: would even consider purposeful negative increase (i.e., decrease)
as well when required to eliminate excess and get
back into the limits of sustainability and to eliminate activities that cost more than they worth.
A sustainable society would need to have
rules, law and social constraints just like all civilisations so far. Some rules would be different
from the ones people got used to nowadays. More
rules would serve the common interest of humanity as a whole. (The authors of the present book
note that there are such rules even today, like the
6.7 Beyond SDGs: How to Develop the Global Society in the Future? Concepts Regarding the Future…
end of the training as 4% of the students completed the courses on average. Around 80% of
those enrolling for the courses already had a
degree. Other online courses ended with similar
or even more disappointing results. Three quarters of those studying higher algebra (90% of
those arriving directly from secondary school)
failed the exam. Students of MOOCs as a whole
performed much worse than the full-time students of San Jose State University, and the issue
of identity of the participants was also raised and
not without reasons. Many students tried to
obtain the certificate of successfully completing
the course cheating. Websites soon appeared that
offered successful certificates of the online
courses for payment. Thus, the leaders of
Stanford University were concerned that students
living at various places in the world were impossible to identify, therefore the university issued a
simple statement of accomplishment instead of a
certificate for those successfully completing the
online courses.
It seems like online training has to overcome a
number of difficulties before becoming widespread. Ford (2015) explained the rough start of
MOOCs with the saying “it is tough getting
started” and considers emerged problems can be
solved. Related to online education, the authors
mention the universal statement of Kaku (2011)
regarding human nature referred to as the caveman principle. This term suggests that basic
characteristics and instincts of the human race
never changed since the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
This is associated with online education that the
vast majority of students still respect more the
direct relationship with teachers than that with a
computer. This concern could be solved if participants of online courses can make personal
contact with tutors now and then discussing their
learning issues. This, of course, also meant that
teachers would be needed in the future.
6.7.5 Meadows’ Team
on Sustainable Development
The authors think that scientific work of the highest standard focusing on the sustainable society
was carried out by the research team of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology led by the
Meadows couple. Considering and modifying
several times the global quantitative system
model of the society, the team came to the valuable conclusions the most important of which
were described in Sect. 2.6. In their book published in 2004 (Meadows et al. 2004), the criteria
of sustainable society and the general principles
to be followed by humanity to implement sustainable development are discussed. The essence
of their message is summarised in the following.
Based on systems thinking, a society can be
considered sustainable if information, social and
institutional mechanisms exist that control continuously the positive feedback loops resulting in
exponentially increasing population and capital.
In the interest of social sustainability population, capital and technology has to be harmonised
to make financial living standard adequate and
secure for all and distributed fairly. To implement
material and energetic sustainability the three
rules of Herman E. Daly have to be met by operation of the economy (Daly 2005):
• renewable resources must be used no faster
than the rate at which they regenerate;
• non-renewable resources must be used no
faster than renewable substitutes for them can
be put into place;
• pollution and waste must be emitted no faster
than natural systems can absorb, recycle or
render them harmless.
Sustainable society would foster progress
(quality change) and would use financial growth
as a carefully considered tool: would even consider purposeful negative increase (i.e., decrease)
as well when required to eliminate excess and get
back into the limits of sustainability and to eliminate activities that cost more than they worth.
A sustainable society would need to have
rules, law and social constraints just like all civilisations so far. Some rules would be different
from the ones people got used to nowadays. More
rules would serve the common interest of humanity as a whole. (The authors of the present book
note that there are such rules even today, like the
6.7 Beyond SDGs: How to Develop the Global Society in the Future? Concepts Regarding the Future…