I’ve been pondering this for some time now.
It is easier now than ever before in history to get your word out there. This blog is an excellent example. All I need is a little bit of computer knowledge and to have access to one. I don’t need to know the first thing about how any of it works, and so long as I have access to some public space that lets me use their computer (like a library) I don’t need to own anything.
Anyone with these two qualifications can now broadcast their ideas and opinions to the whole world. I’m not sure that’s necessarily a good thing. Now, I’m absolutely NOT in favour of censorship, but at the same time, I also think that not all opinions are of equal value.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
-Isaac Asimov
What if people actually had to know something about the technology they used before they were able to use it?
I don’t think that knowledge of technology is the main criterion for whether someone is worth listening to. Unless you think that brogrammers have a culture worth propagating.
I’d agree that it’s not the main one, but it is one of them. It’s like with computer science: computer science may be more than programming, but it’s not less.