Do you think college could be significantly made less important with big tech

Which big tech are you referring to that is doing this?

There was a scene in Big Bang Theory where Penny quipped to the guys "So what's new in physics these days?" and Howard replied "Really nothing since the 1930's."

These guys from Cal Tech, MIT et al don't really need "education," they've been figuring out stuff on their own since they were in preschool. But all of US need them to be in one place at the same time so they can bounce ideas off each other and make newer better stuff.

We need a National Science Academy where these people can dorm beginning when they're like 12 or 13 and just let them fuck around in state-of-the-art laboratories, and the patents would be public domain. Give them a really big stipend so they can live large.