Makers and Users

I suggest a simple thought experiment. Science fiction books occasionally mention an imaginary device: a replicator. It consists of two boxes; you put an object in a box, close the lid, and instantly get its undistinguishable fully functional copy in the second box. In particular, a replicator can replicate smaller replicators. Now imagine the economy based on replicators. It needs two groups of producers: a very small group of engineers who build and maintain the biggest replicator and a very diverse, but still small, group of artisans, designers, and scientists who produce a single original prototype of each object. This hypothetical economy also needs service sector, mostly waste disposal. Next, try, if you can, imagine a sustainable, stable, equal, and democratic model of education that supports this lopsided economy. But this apocalyptic future is already upon us – in the information sector of economy, where computers act as replicators of information. Mathematics, due to its special role in the information technology, is the most affected part of human culture. The new patterns of division of labour split mathematics for makers from mathematics for users and trigger a crisis of mathematics education. The latter increasingly focuses on mathematics for users and undermines itself because sustainable reproduction of mathematics requires teachers educated as makers.