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Video to watch on Cognitive Surplus

Watched this video yesterday and it is well worth spending the time on:

Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 Expo SF

The basic manifesto this guy has is that there is a huge “Cognitive Surplus” out there that is not being used - it is mostly be wasted watching TV and spending time being passive. He likens TV watching to alcohol consumption and the Industrial Revolution - saying that people needed Gin then to cope with having too many people around them. TV watching has been the way to cope with having too much spare time in the post world war II lives we need.

Clay thinks that the internet is being to create ways to better use the time when we are not working - wikipedia being a very constructive example of the “cognitive surplus” being used and not wasted.

He also thinks the next generations are waking up to live in this world and are treating TV watching as a previous generation started treating alcohol and substance abuse during the industrial revolution.