I'm saying people are building sputterers, waterjets and even fabing transistors and ICs(Sam Zeloof) in their garages. It goes way beyond factoids. You can connect with experts in just about any field.
True! I just focused on factoids because that's what I feel most keenly. Even though the availability of educational resources has arguably made a bigger difference in my own life, the thing that tickles my fancy is still that I can get answers to silly questions like "what is that damn lyric?" that were completely mysterious before.