Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Nooschool

You've heard about 2012? You haven't? Well, ready or not the world as we know it is going to end - the Mayans predicted it ages ago, and so did many other ancient peoples. And Nostradamus, too. No coincidence: it's got to happen (December 21st to be precise). And then nothing will be the same. We'll leave our bodies behind and enter a collective psychic "noosphere." (I learned this from one of our students, who's writing his senior work on 2012 and the New Age. As ever, religious studies is on it!)
And if that doesn't happen? We learned from our provost today that even worse things may be in store: for 2012 is the year when the "bubble" of college-age baby boomer kids comes to an end. To hear him describe it, the world of higher education will change overnight - previously selective schools will be reduced to begging and bribing students to come.

I think I'll propose an interdisciplinary liberal arts degree in noospheric studies.