The highest purpose of the internet is upon us

Asimov’s future of learning is right now.

Watching this interview with Isaac Asimov, things became pretty clear in my mind. We are reaching the highest purpose of internet, to enjoy learning. Asimov was predicting the internet, and more than 20 years later, it’s freaking real.

“Once we have computer outlets in every home, each of them hooked up to enormous libraries where anyone can ask any question and be given answers, be given reference materials, be something you’re interested in knowing, from an early age, however silly it might seem to someone else… that’s what you are interested in, and you can ask, and you can find out, and you can do it in your own home, at your own speed, in your own direction, in your own time. Then, everyone will enjoy learning. Nowadays, what people call learning is forced on you, and everyone is forced to learn the same thing on the same day at the same speed in class, and everyone is different”

His views couldn't be more precise. Personal computers are as popular as home phones [as said], and not only big computers, we can also access information from smartphones, tablets and television in more efficient ways than we could ever dream.

It became easy to learn about anything you want. We have some of the best universities in the world sharing their classes freely. We can learn countless topics on Coursera and Udacity, study and practice several languages on Livemocha, and even learn to play the guitar, write songs and many other magnificent topics in music with Berklee.

One of the most impressive learning projects I know is Code Academy, where you can intuitively learn to code in the most popular programming languages for web applications. It’s quite simple to learn, from HTML and CSS structure to javascript, PHP and Ruby. Going further, learning to integrate all this knowledge in projects and apply in real life. Everything was carefully built for a better student experience.

I've improved my logical way of thinking with one of the best mathematicians alive, Keith Devlin. Studied Artificial Intelligence in Stanford and learnt about behavioral economics in Duke University with the world famous and amazing teacher Dan Ariely. But it's not enough, last Monday I started a 120 hours long Astrophysics course provided by the brazilian National Observatory. All free. It’s hard to explain how mind blowing it is to be studying with the best teachers in the world.

The interviewer from Asimov's video was absolutely right to look skeptical about Isaac's predictions when he asks:

“I love the vision, but, what about the argument that machines [computers] dehumanize learning?”

And the answer was truly what we see now:

“As a matter of fact it's just the reverse. It seems to me that, through these machines, for the first time, we’ll be able to have a one-to-one relationship between information source and information consumer. ”

Having a world class university teacher, speaking to hundred of thousands of students without charging a single dollar, is something hard to conceive.

What impacts this new way of learning can have? Will regular school and university become places you only go to discuss what you learn online?

The future of learning looks bright to me and I am really excited.

What are you planning to learn next?