Saved by the geeks

On FORA.tv, the creator of "Heroes," a cross-platform franchise which in the past would have been a mere TV series, explains the beauty of "audience sourcing." You see, there are all those millions of kids (some over 20, even 30) who, as a matter of principle, would never watch TV but would rather download - hm, illegally - their favorite shows. This is a fact of life, so this fickle audience must somehow be tapped. How do you do it most efficiently? Very simple - by creating a string of clever web sites through witch the digital fugitives will click compulsively (after they see, for example, the address for one of them flashed on the screen - all ingeniously embedded in the plot line). And bingo - you have delivered millions of surplus eyeballs to the advertisers chasing after this elusive demographic. You must really admire such inventive genius. At one point the creator makes a reference to a new survey which says US kids and teens now spend on average 7.5 hours (11.5 if you factor in multi-tasking) glued to screens of different sizes. What is his first thought? Wow, what an opportunity to reach into the brains of all those young addicts! And you can do it incessantly, practically all the time while they are awake - on behalf of advertisers and anyone willing to invest into that all-out effort. You must admire such clear focus and determination, too. But if you think the guy is merely bent on making a quick buck from his creative brilliance, you will be completely wrong. His "heroes" are all involved in frantic efforts to save the world - and his stated goal is to inspire all young minds watching them to follow in their footsteps. This, apparently, is the only feasible way to avoid all those environmental and other disasters which would otherwise ruin human civilization in the future. This reminds me of another talk on FORA - by a young neuroscientist who lists "six easy steps to avert the collapse of civilization." One of those steps is linked to the way the internet opens the gates of education. A "motivated teen" anywhere in the world, he says, can have access to the totality of human knowledge collected since the invention of writing. There is a slight problem here - all that compulsive clicking may not exactly contribute to the development of the focus and motivation essential to learning. But, of course, we all know that the Luddites' resistance to the onward march of progress was silly and futile, and we don't want to repeat their mistake all over again.