How to smarten ourselves up after being so effectively dumbed down - Q&A Los Angeles Z-Day, 2013

(Q&A host) OK. How do we practically smart ourselves up after being so effectively dumbed down? [Audience laughter] (Ben McLeish) First of all, I want to congratulate you on the funniest question, so far. That sort of ties in a little bit with what I was saying. Who here would say that most of their education these days comes from direct contact with the Internet? Right? We get all our news from there. We learn about things like the Khan Academy from there and all the rest of it. We read our books, which are delivered by the Internet. You're receiving news sources that can't go through a censor, just through the structure of the way that this is set up. I do think that most of the education-... By the way, you know more than Galileo did, right? You're geniuses compared to Galileo, go with that in mind. This kind of stuff is sort of, I think education is sort of built in. There are a lot of people who can just use the Internet for Khan videos, but I think that that's changing. I do think that overall, as things are shared more and this social engine pushes information outwards, by people who deliberately want it to be shared, and as that becomes more of a social effort (rather than just "Hey, look at this Khan video!") then I think this gradually tips the balance, almost like the tipping point you were talking about. So I would say there's definitively going to be systemic education, rather than just going to school- even schools are changing now as well- it's going to be the general interaction between the availability of information and the way that the interaction actually sends that information on as well. Especially our children right now... My daughter has already learned way more than I did and has come into contact with operating systems and concepts about the earth and all the rest of it, not through me being anywhere near a good parent, but just the fact the there is all this interactivity and availability of information and all the rest of it. I don't know if that helps. - We are legion. - We are legion, indeed.