Just saw this video by Douglas Rushkoff on what I would call ‘programming literacy’ and it made me curious about his new book Life Inc. I really like this quote from the last part of this video:

“If we don’t create a society, that at least knows there is a thing called programming, then we will end being not the programmers, but the users and worse: the used”

In my not so humble opinion everyone should at least learn the basics of programming so that every citizen at least knows our society is running on hardware and software. And I’m not just referring to the practical art of programming. Perhaps more people would understand the need for open, interoperable and transparent systems instead of black boxes of which we know little of the inner workings. Maybe more citizens would request society’s hard- and software to be built upon the philosophical views common among Free and Open Source software proponents regardless of their political colors.

Check the video below, I will be ordering Rushkoff’s book.

Via: Boingboing.net