Cognitive Surplus

This article entitled "Gin, Television, and Social Surplus" has come up a time in the various sources I visit. While I don't buy into it completely, it's got more than enough interesting concepts to warrant a recommendation. Key concepts that caught my eye are the idea that the entire Wikipedia represents ~100 million hours of human thought and that we, in the U.S. spend 200 billion hours watching TV each year. In other words, 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year spent watching television. I think we'll always tend towards relaxing entertainment when it's available, but I like it's fun to think about what we might come up with by using a small portion of the surplus. Or, more to the point, if somehow we shift towards "active" entertainment. Check back in five years.