A Surplus Easy to Squander- Jonah Lehrer on Cognitive Surplus

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Jonah Lehrer review of Clay Shirky's book, "Cognitive Surplus- Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age". Shriky seems to develop the theme that passive watching of television has come to end, and we are poised to enter more deeply the interconnected world of web-based colloboration-

". "The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something, and someone making lolcats has bridged that gap."

Whether reading a poem, or passively watching a classic movie is an inferior act to making a lolcat, or as in my case, making a blogpost is the question Lehrer poses.

"We have arranged our modern lives to maximize free time. Now, thanks to the virtual infrastructure of the internet, we are able to collaborate and interact as never before. The question is what these collaborations will create. A surplus, after all, is easy to squander."

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