The “open source” programming movement, which harnesses the wisdom of crowds to collectively make a better product (like Wikipedia entries), has grown beyond its software roots to embrace religion. The holy texts of “yoism” shun the wisdom of high priests and rely instead on teachings that evolve online organically.

L.A. Times:

Behold, brethren. The “open source” movement, long championed by computer whizzes as a way to solve problems using the input of all, is increasingly being applied to other disciplines including literature, scientific research and religion.

Yes, religion. Yoism ? a faith invented by a Massachusetts psychologist ? shuns godly wisdom passed down by high priests. Instead, its holy text evolves online, written by the multitude of followers ? much the same way volunteer programmers create open-source computer software by each contributing lines of code.

Adherents of Yoism ? who count Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud among their saints ? occupy the radical fringe of the open-source movement, which is quickly establishing itself as a new organizing principle for the 21st century.

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