Story Lab: Education, intelligence and copyrights

Copyright is Brain Damage, Nina Paley

Paley's efforts to deny the concept of copyright strikes a deep and resounding chord within me. While I believe individuals are entitled to benefit from the fruits of their labor, halting the spread of an individual's work/ideas/music/art years after their passing benefits none save the companies who hold the license. I don't believe it's ethical or safe to remove all licensing from private properties, as knowledge can be dangerous (DIY gene-editing kits are currently being sold out of a biohacker's garage... but they're "licensed" so that's ok). Within the realms of art, music, and creativity, I believe ideas truly are free: they just pop up in our heads, even if they aren't ours. It's free in my head, and hopefully I have the wisdom to recognize whether it's mine or not. 

A New Theory of Human Intelligence, Scott Barry Kaufman

The prestige offered by many elite universities is in fact proprietary and dispensed only upon those applicants deemed favorable. I don't have a problem with maintaining education as proprietary. I do have a problem with the standards used to justify access, especially after wading through six months of graduation school comparisons.The checklist for graduate school admission includes, in one form or another:

• Money - Usually too much, but a logical component. 
• Previous Transcripts - A measure of my past efforts and record of achievements or failures.
• GRE Scores, or their equivalent. A measure of how well I can take a GRE test.

A test can ultimately only offer a measure of an individual's ability to take that test. Most tests are used to generate averages, standard deviations and categories of "desirable" and "subpar." Using the results of such tests to justify who is permitted to learn remains the standard in higher education today, regardless of a particular test's accuracy in forecasting human potential.  Many schools utilize standardized test scores as the first considered and most significant factor influencing their decision to approve or reject an application. I don't believe you can measure the potential of a human being in an afternoon with 60 questions and an essay, but I also doubt the true potential of any individual can be accurately measured with any tests we may design.