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Whattaboutthecosmos t1_iraj8et wrote

Reply to comment by Deformero in The End of Programming by General-Tart-6934

After reading this, a thought popped into my head; Although there is certainly a disparity in the data/intelligence google has vs the person in the basement, the person in the basement still has a lot of potential with only the information that is available free online. Even if this disparity always exists, the person in the basement will also still be able to progress their data/intelligence as time goes on exponentially just as google is able to.

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Deformero t1_iram2jr wrote

Sure, you can get bunch of books and all kinds of expert literature for free or very cheap, but average person in the basment will not read that and work on himself. Average Internet consumer watches YouTube, Netflix and porn.

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Whattaboutthecosmos t1_irapd7i wrote

Yes, I presume you are correct. Though, any person with a computer and internet now has access. This includes above average people (however you wish to define above-average). Also, an average person may partake in the activities you listed on 99% of the days of their lives. But they may find a few days in their life to produce something worthwhile. This could be something as big as defying mortality or writing a meaningful blog post that could be accessed by millions and nudge discourse in a new direction. Even deciding to upvote or downvote something could have a micro-impact.

side-note: (*This is just free thinking) I find it interesting that you call them "internet consumer"s, as I see interacting with the internet as a sort of communication. A user that is going to sites such as youtube, netflix, etc. is still communicating with the internet by giving prompts to go to those sites. I couldn't consume the internet the same way I couldn't consume a person just by interacting with them.

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