I don't think the Gutenberg thing applies at all. I think we're getting carried away. You could make a argument about digital information and the Web as a way t

I don't think the Gutenberg thing applies at all. I think we're getting carried away. You could make a argument about digital information and the Web as a way to disseminate information as a Gutenberg style invention but I don't think programming is. I don't think programming and learning to code is the "everyday problem solver," "more peaceful" person. I think what you're talking about is the phenomena that intellectuals tend to be more circumspect, perhaps less violent whatever. We don't need programming for that. We have a whole history of knowledge and art in philosophy, literature, other sciences, logic, mathematics etc. I fail to see how programming is special in that sense? The average person, say in the US, may be more likely to be able to read than in the past but they do not tend to be less "ignorant" of many societal issues, cultures, etc (because you bring up peace and harmony) even thought we have educational tools long standing to solve that problem, much better than programming. Honestly, I dispute this outright. I've been programming a long time, met many programmers and computer scientists; it does not seem like the ability to produce CRUD correlates in any real sense to a person being less likely to join the Tea Party. You're viewing programming as this great society benefiting solution to social ills or something that makes you a better person; large swaths of people would just view it as an engineering and say "fine, sure, programming skills make it easier for you to get a job, great" but not anything that substantially creates peace in the world -- that's too much I think.