Kids shouldn’t be encouraged to be like the founders of Microsoft, Apple or Facebook, says Youngmoo Kim, a Drexel University professor and founder of the ExCITe Center, which intersects tech and art. Instead, tech needs thinkers like Louis Armstrong, Diana Ross or Grandmaster Flash — people who took risks and added something new to their craft.

“In tech, we have our own classical giants —Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg,” Kim said. “And our society, in some ways, has been so blinded by their success to an extreme view that tech can solve any problem. But if we ask all to follow only their traditions, how will we ever see something that shakes those traditions, like jazz, like Motown or the hip-hop of technology?”

Under the theme of “Unintended Consequences,” Kim focused on tech’s lack of diversity in his TEDxPhiladelphia talk on Wednesday. The big lesson: A culture shift needs to happen to reverse the digital divide it’s widening.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE