It would appear that in the contemporary world, it is hardly necessarily for the individual to 'know' anything. Far more important is the ability to cull knowledge from readily available repositories of knowledge: google, wikipedia, etc.
On the other hand, the wealth of knowledge now available to anyone makes the ability to analyze and validate that 'prefabricated' knowledge far more important: With so many sources available, only accurate analysis can make this store of knowledge useful.
In the past, individuals who knew information or even just simple factoids, were very important - along with libraries of books, perhaps the most important repositories of human knowledge. Today the analyst seems to have taken the foremost position.
Does this represent a fundamental shift in the way humans deal with, process, and value knowledge and information? Are we looking at something similar to what Marshall McLuhan described when the printing press was invented? Something that will give rise to a new framework for viewing and dealing with the world we experience?