You are talking about Hive-Mind mentality. This is like Star Trek's Borg. There is a lot of potential for this type of thinking is it could actually be achieved. As an IT guy I see how we accomplish this with computer clustering and treat computers as individual resources that are shared across the cluster. You are right about the potential for collective processing, in fields like science and even military combat.

I was introduced to moocs in the last incarnation of 6329, I took my first mooc and although the time constraints were a problem I found it quite enjoyable. The benefit of these moocs is their flexibility, you can take a mooc on just about any topic. I took one on science fiction literature that semester and was able to get a whole new perspective on some of my favorite classics as well as new stories. This semester I am adhoc taking one on the literature value of comics and graphic novels. I say adhoc since I got through the videos on what little down time I have this semester and don't really have thte time to do the assignments. I don't see these as the future of education, but for a student with no alternatives, they are a decent start and I think that is the point behind these moocs. Once the business men and politicians get involved they will likely lose their appeal or free status...