I'm no brain expert, but I'm not sure that we use the same part of the brain for remembering facts as we do for thinking deeply. Happy to be proved wrong on that.
Congratulations on pulling the app together so quickly. Out of curiosity, is there research to suggest that using flashcards is a superior way of learning? For example, for languages, isn't it better to practice with a native speaker to understand the subtleties of the language, expressions, etc.? Personally, I am now more likely to rely on the Internet as a store of facts, like capitals of the world, rather than commit such facts to memory.
The problem is not the Dark Knight fans, so much as the algorithms being used to rank the movies. How can you take advantage of crowd wisdom if you don’t control for spoofing, spam and mob voting? It’s surprising that there wasn’t already in place a process for dealing with such a common phenomenon.
I think the more interesting part of this story is to delve into Brad Burnham’s musings on Web meets World. Especially his quoting of Tim O’Reilly: “We can post and comment and tweet and tag and follow all we want in cyberspace; but if it ultimately doesn’t change anything in real space, we haven’t really accomplished anything.”
Alternate theory: The Internet is a dangerous idea – cf Raganwald last post. Religions would probably prefer to keep followers away from the web and in a place of worship, where there is more direct idea control; therefore would be less interested in devoting resources to developing websites. Second, I’d suggest that the average hacker puts reason before faith, so is less likely to believe in a supernatural creator.