The Internet has so much information that a dedicated individual could be self-taught on almost any subject or craft, at least enough to be employable. I have no plumbing or electrical skills – but there is so much on YouTube and home repair web sites that I could apply myself and learn the basics.
For free.
MIT has their entire engineering curriculum online. For free.
Khan Academy has outstanding math, science, and economics classes in short, consumable bites. For free.
World class professors teach classes online in many colleges and universities. Many of those are recorded, and freely available.
Here’s the kicker: how many people are actually taking advantage of this? Hardly anyone. The statistics from online-only college degree programs are underwhelming; relatively few students who begin actually finish.
Why? What does this tell us about ourselves, and our culture? Does this tell us anything about our expectations of institutional certification? I am still pondering this question. (What do you think?)
Two facts are clear:
(1) Going forward, there are few limits to self-education opportunities.
(2) We’re going to need those opportunities, given the fast-changing complexity of our world.
Some years ago I interviewed a young man without a college degree, from Pakistan. He had systematically studied all the MIT engineering class videos online, and felt he had the equivalent of a degree from MIT. I wonder how long before corporations are smart enough to hire this kind of young man? Or will they continue to risk competing against him as a start-up engineer/entrepreneur?
Here’s another line of thought. Historically socialists and communists have painted a picture where everyone would have access to the finest education, all for free, and live up to their full potential. In practical terms this level of education has become available via the Internet. What do the large majority of people use the Internet for? Streaming entertainment, gaming, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, porn. I think this experiment tells us that the reason why socialism won’t work is because people are not uniformly good and idealistic and self-disciplined enough to make that system work the way it aspires to.
Critical test: What percentage of a society will take advantage of all that is available to them and fulfill their potential? Historically it’s probably less than 5%.
