The cognitive surplus is made of fossil fuels

People in the industrial world have a great deal of free time. Clay Shirky has described this free time, considered as a whole, as a vast “cognitive surplus,” and presents many efforts currently under way to use the cognitive surplus for prosocial ends. However, the cognitive surplus came to exist l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inFirst Monday Vol. 17; no. 11
Main Authors Tomlinson, Bill, Silberman, M. Six
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.11.2012
Subjects
Cognitive aspects
Energy
Leisure
Social aspects
Sustainable development
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Summary:People in the industrial world have a great deal of free time. Clay Shirky has described this free time, considered as a whole, as a vast “cognitive surplus,” and presents many efforts currently under way to use the cognitive surplus for prosocial ends. However, the cognitive surplus came to exist largely as a result of labor–saving devices that run on fossil fuels. Many problems relating to fossil fuels constrain how people can responsibly use the cognitive surplus to address environmental sustainability and other current concerns. We suggest that an excellent use of the present cognitive surplus is to help society prepare for an energy–scarce future — that is, a future that may not be able to support the existence of a cognitive surplus at the current level.
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ISSN:1396-0466
1396-0466
DOI:10.5210/fm.v17i11.4120