THE NEXT ROCKSTARS

To be a computer geek or not to be is soon to be a social question. The question is to be answered by everyone who's got a huge urge to stay cool. But wait, how about the guys who are depending more and more on the internet either as entrepreneurs or just as students. I dare say that these people too, by their own standards, are themselves geeks; they simply define it way too loosely.

 

Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee of the UK weaved the internet in 1989. He could be now said to be the greatest humanitarian of our precarious age. And judging by the knighthood he received from the British Royalty in 2004, this observation is not far off the mark.

 

Now the world wide web has spawned a whole new "Big Bang". These days you are sure to eavesdrop on private conversations about business ventures online. And you would be excused for doing so too-digital migration is a legitimate buzzword. In several countries, and on all seven continents, falling behind while the world marches on as it picks itself up and dusts itself off in the aftermath of this "Big Bang" will be a guaranteed suicide by nukes.

 

Only this time will the "Big Bang" be properly mathematized. Only this time will the laws of physics be democratized. Only this time will everybody stand a chance at being a true superstar scientist.

 

In the States a short film has been shot with the intent to socialize this very idea. The film is called WHAT MOST SCHOOLS DON'T TEACH. It is available for viewing on YOUTUBE.

 

Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder and CEO, had been computer illiterate. In the film, computer programming is touted as the "new literacy". The meaning should be obvious: each one of us is in dire need of an education all over again. We can ill afford to embrace complacency. So the next time you find your hands being weighed down by a load of unoccupied hours ticking away, just contemplate the fact that coding is a fresh sing-along to rock to.

 

Yet kids need more of this kind of literacy than adults do-they have a longer stretch ahead of them. Along with math and science, coding ought to be taught in school. In maintaining the human civilization, problem solving will be in greater demand. And one territory to be conquered is Artificial Intelligence (AI). It's going to be a necessary tool to possess. Just as the free world needed the nuke energy to stop Hitler's Germany and her menacing comrades in their tracks, so will the human condition require us to be active more, to think more creatively, and to educate the human mind more along the lines of computer power.