The Internet as a collective entity is smarter than anyone and has more expertise on every subject than any individual or institution does. Credentials, e.g. academic credentials like a "degree", are like membership in the guild system in the middle ages. You pay your dues, then partake in a political role in a society that's constructed in a certain way.
The Internet is acting like a solvent for credentials and institutions. Even the most expert, expert on a given topic will only remember or be thinking about some narrow band of details about the stuff they're into and many institutions that actually do things (like build products) tend to be really narrowly focused. The Internet's like the ultimate jack of all trades with breadth of knowledge and depth of knowledge that exceeds.
The Internet already chewed up newspapers and is in the process of chewing up broadcast TV because its technology easily mimicked the core technologies of those industries. Pretty soon it will start to dissolve academic institutions. It's pretty crazy for people to assume a mortgage worth of debt to get a degree when all the same information, even in classroom format, is already on the Internet for free. It's very likely that in certain fields, like many engineering disciplines, an autodidact student will have more practical hands on experience and knowledge after studying YouTubes and doing home projects than an undergrad or maybe even people with masters degrees.
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