[OT] HyperCard and the Interactive Web

Bernard Devlin bdrunrev at gmail.com
Wed Feb 15 10:35:48 EST 2012


Alas, I think it is not a new phenomenon.

I am not young enough to know everything.
-- Oscar Wilde

Whenever I walk into a large library, I feel a sense of awe in the
physical presence of so much that I do not know, and will never know.
Being able to click between Facebook, Google and Wikipedia is unlikely
to instill a sense of the vastness of knowledge and the limited
lifespan we have.  Reading about advanced ancient civilizations also
makes me wonder at how much we have lost in terms of knowledge.

The internet is great as an instant encyclopaedia (even given the
partiality of much of the information).  What it lacks is depth and a
scale by which to realise one's ignorance.  Getting an overview of a
subject on the internet, then going to a real library to read around
it makes me appreciate the physical library even more.

But I'm not knocking the digitisation of information - I would hate to
have to physically search through a stack of old copies of the New
York Times going back through the last century.

There are some obscure books printed in India in the 1930s that I want
to look up soon.  I've found physical copies, but I have no hope they
will ever be digitised.  And that makes me wonder about what knowledge
we will lose about our own past.

Bernard

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 8:44 PM, Bob Sneidar <bobs at twft.com> wrote:
> It is frightening to think that so many "kids" grow up to be adults and NEVER form the thought, "Maybe I don't know all about...". What positions do they eventually come to hold where doing the wrong thing means damage, pain and suffering and even death to themselves or others?




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