If you're interested in creating interactive museum experiences that put the visitors 'in' historical events then I can recommend a visit to the The Hagia Sophia History & Experience Museum in Istanbul. It seeks to do exactly this and is a great experience alongside seeing the Hagia Sofia itself (they are on opposite ends of the square)
The new interactive bit opened in 2023 I think. Worth a visit, even if just as an excuse to go to Istanbul. Make sure to visit Çiya Sofrası whilst you're there. Their bozbash is bestbash.
Some years ago, I watched an interview with Tony Robbins where he said he didn't add much novel content to the world, because at the end of the day, his knowledge can be found on the Internet or in books. What he adds, he said, were raw, strong emotions. He explained that humans learn and remember only when strong emotions are involved, and I think that's the key to anything you plan to do regarding education.
Examples of this are everywhere: Jesus taught through human stories, political parties tap into the deepest human emotions to make people feel understood, and cults convince people through extreme sensations and ideas.
The fact that you are thinking about physical experiences is already the right direction. Fever in Spain is skyrocketing because of that. I think something similar is possible in the digital world with novel, high-intensity apps, like Lumenate.
I believe you could create amazing, immersive experiences by combining all of these elements into a cohesive experience that makes us feel like we did when we watched incredible documentaries on television as kids, or when we cried during a great planetarium presentation.
I'd be happy to join you on that path. I have already sent my application.
I think a video game (or board game) could be cool, especially as an education tool? Something that helps people learn these subjects in a more interactive way.
You are a creative beast. Facebook tapped into something fairly universal, a human's love of their story, their world, with them at the center. Feeding AI details of a person's life could generate a book, a type of autobiography with photos. AI can alter photos to resemble any style, say, like Tintin, steampunk, Charlie Brown and render your childhood home etc as well. It would be difficult to overestimate the interest people have in themselves. Yer pal, Wes
Love the idea of routinely introducing interactivity into articles! Some of the digital "experiences" I've had over the years really stuck with me, like a simple COVID transmission visualizer embedded in a NYT article, or an idle clicker game illustrating how an AI optimizing for paper clip production might destroy the world. Those helped me grasp the concepts in a tangible way that simply reading didn't accomplish, and made the information sticky over time.
Would love to see these relatively easy expansions:
- Audiobook level narrated UT articles
- More youtube adaptations of the best UT articles
- A big merch store as that might help with income
EDIT:
- Books! yes that seems a great idea too, might need some rewrites but if you bundle some articles, you make some great books
- Netflix show, that would be huge, I'd watch, have you perhaps considered a Nebula show first?
Thanks!
Why Nebula? I don’t know them much.
I just know the geohistory youtube channels I watch are all on Nebula:
History & Geopolitics: RealLifeLore, The Great War, Real Time History.
As well as Practical Engineering and Half As Interesting
Not that Nebula is better than Netflix, getting on Netflix would still be huge, but Nebula for sure is very realistic.
If you're interested in creating interactive museum experiences that put the visitors 'in' historical events then I can recommend a visit to the The Hagia Sophia History & Experience Museum in Istanbul. It seeks to do exactly this and is a great experience alongside seeing the Hagia Sofia itself (they are on opposite ends of the square)
Interesting. I haven’t been in 30 years!
The new interactive bit opened in 2023 I think. Worth a visit, even if just as an excuse to go to Istanbul. Make sure to visit Çiya Sofrası whilst you're there. Their bozbash is bestbash.
Some years ago, I watched an interview with Tony Robbins where he said he didn't add much novel content to the world, because at the end of the day, his knowledge can be found on the Internet or in books. What he adds, he said, were raw, strong emotions. He explained that humans learn and remember only when strong emotions are involved, and I think that's the key to anything you plan to do regarding education.
Examples of this are everywhere: Jesus taught through human stories, political parties tap into the deepest human emotions to make people feel understood, and cults convince people through extreme sensations and ideas.
The fact that you are thinking about physical experiences is already the right direction. Fever in Spain is skyrocketing because of that. I think something similar is possible in the digital world with novel, high-intensity apps, like Lumenate.
I believe you could create amazing, immersive experiences by combining all of these elements into a cohesive experience that makes us feel like we did when we watched incredible documentaries on television as kids, or when we cried during a great planetarium presentation.
I'd be happy to join you on that path. I have already sent my application.
Interesting! I need to look this up. Thanks for sharing! Will have a look at applications this week
I think a video game (or board game) could be cool, especially as an education tool? Something that helps people learn these subjects in a more interactive way.
You are a creative beast. Facebook tapped into something fairly universal, a human's love of their story, their world, with them at the center. Feeding AI details of a person's life could generate a book, a type of autobiography with photos. AI can alter photos to resemble any style, say, like Tintin, steampunk, Charlie Brown and render your childhood home etc as well. It would be difficult to overestimate the interest people have in themselves. Yer pal, Wes
Love the idea of routinely introducing interactivity into articles! Some of the digital "experiences" I've had over the years really stuck with me, like a simple COVID transmission visualizer embedded in a NYT article, or an idle clicker game illustrating how an AI optimizing for paper clip production might destroy the world. Those helped me grasp the concepts in a tangible way that simply reading didn't accomplish, and made the information sticky over time.