Today at the PDF 2008 conference, Clay Shirky called spare time, "cognitive surplus." For the purposes of our Volunteer Now application, I've simply been calling it "spare time" - but does it need a catchier name? 'Cognitive surplus" sounds too academic. At another time, I've referred to this concept as "human processing units" or HPUs... mostly as a joke, but maybe it's tongue-in-cheek and familiar enough to work as a popular term. It makes us sounds like robots, but hey, when our browsers' persistent storage technology sounds like a delicious after dinner treat, maybe it's ok to go in the other direction with this one?
I might also note that Noam Chomsky has been espousing the same ideas that Shirky discusses in his great monologue above... he's called it our "spare caring capacity" and said that it's been going into soap operas and sports for years... and, in theory, should be available for politics and civic engagement...
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