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I'm having trouble seeing any downside to the project.
Yes, and let's consider that this is just the beginning.
Agreed, this isn't a cure for the "cultural divide", Musick.
It isn't a cure for cancer, or global warming, either.
Will it accelerate progress on these fronts? Perhaps. Indeed, it is hard to see how, as it gathers speed and evolves, it would not.
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I'm having trouble seeing any downside to the project
sorry if my comment appeared to be a negative endorsement of this project. I think it's great, and look forward to seeing and using what should be an amazing resource. I'm just not sure that it will have quite the effect that many would hope(including myself). amazing resources are available to us now, for just a short hike to our local libraries, yet how many of us take advantage of that. I pessimistically guess that many of the people now coming to computers are not necessarily going to dive into all the knowledge areas of the net. more likely that they will do their shopping, and look up their favorite movie stars.
how's that for a gloomy outlook?
I'm going to think more about this, especially from a(n) historical viewpoint... books, etc...
formerly known as etaoin...
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re I'm going to think more about this, especially from a(n) historical viewpoint... books, etc...Food for Thought? PBS Online Newshour
Library and technology experts join Ray Suarez for a look at Google's plans to make reference libraries searchable online.Extract: RAY SUAREZ: Well, a colleague of yours said today, Daniel Greenstein from the California Digital Library of the U.C. system, that our world is about to change in a big, big way. What does it mean for the New York City Public Library to be available in this way? PAUL LE CLERC: Well, the world is going to change and the world has been changing very dramatically over the course of the last ten years, minimally ever since the worldwide web came into being and libraries started, as we did, to put our collections on line, but this is going to blow open things in ways that are hard to even imagine I think over the course of the next decade. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec04/google_12-14.html
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FF - The statement about the "cultural divide" was more 'commentary about' than 'argument against'. The more the merrier, I say! Unfettered access for all. I also don't see any downside to the project... other than people going to the library to get on the internet after all those hard working library people took the time to gather those books together... seemingly to have them just collect dust. (which seems to be somehow/what embedded in etaoin's comment)
Humankind can only keep so much "in mind" at a time... the more research manuals available the better, indeed! Not that another version of "A trillion monkeys at a trillion typewriters" perspective isn't worth the time... as something good is bound to become of it just from the increase in the amount of information at hand.
*****
We could eliminate a lot more things from society on such a basis.
Yeah, probably the 'internal combustion engine' should be the first to go.
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amazing resources are available to us now, for just a short hike to our local libraries, yet how many of us take advantage of that.
When I lived in AK, I walked to the other side of the post almost every weekend to spend the money I had earned from babysitting on chess books and model tanks, but always on the way home I'd stop at the library a few hours. It was a cathartic ritual for me, though I don't recall ever having seen a single person my age in the place - or much of anyone else. No matter the age, people prefer to do what is easy and popular. Reading, studying, experimenting take some mental effort that most people are not prepared to commit in their free time.
I pessimistically guess that many of the people now coming to computers are not necessarily going to dive into all the knowledge areas of the net.
I'm sure that will prove true. But I'm also sure that the easier it becomes for people to get a smidgen of knowledge, the more likely it will be that they will search for and make use of that knowledge. People are morely likely to do what is easy and what has immediate payoff.
It's not a cornucopia. But it could very well have unexpected beneficial consequences.
Probably few people on the net today use Gutenburg, but I think the net is a better place for the existence of such a site.
Currently my employer pays for me to have an electronic bookshelf at O'Reilly as well as access for all employees to a much larger selection (20K volumes) in the other sciences from another site - and hundreds of journals. This is great for me and my colleagues. But I've always thought it would be even better when more stuff is available to a wider audience - for free.
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Humankind can only keep so much "in mind" at a time... the more research manuals available the better, indeed!
Well, yes.
Not that another version of "A trillion monkeys at a trillion typewriters" perspective isn't worth the time... as something good is bound to become of it just from the increase in the amount information at hand.
I hope you mean this facetiously. The problem is not just the existence of the information, but finding the needle in the electronic bookstack - which google will hopefully assist in addressing.
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well answered, FF. I, too, spent a lot of time at the library. and reading the Colliers at home...
But I'm also sure that the easier it becomes for people to get a smidgen of knowledge, the more likely it will be that they will search for and make use of that knowledge.
I hope that you're right. I'd like to think so, too.
But I've always thought it would be even better when more stuff is available to a wider audience - for free
yes! the Encyclopedia Galactica.
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I hope you mean this facetiously.
Well, yes.
I admire and practice (as much as possible) the process known as "improvisation" which shows up 'many times many ways'(sic) across every feild of study, play, etc... where progress is intrinsic to the actual goal. However, we shouldn't all be lining up to cite which dictionary offered the most help to the trillion monkeys when they finally type out the cure for a "cultural divide"... it will be, by construction, a collective effort.
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... where progress is intrinsic to the actual goal. However, we shouldn't all be lining up to cite which dictionary offered the most help to the trillion monkeys when they finally type out the cure for a "cultural divide"... it will be, by construction, a collective effort.Now musick, that sentence lacks continuity. But amazingly, I agree with what you didn't say.  Milum. ( Sorry Ananastrophic, I have forgotten my password letters.)
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... where progress is intrinsic to the actual goal. However, we shouldn't all be lining up to cite which dictionary offered the most help to the trillion monkeys when they finally type out the cure for a "cultural divide"... it will be, by construction, a collective effort.Now musick, that sentence lacks continuity. But amazingly, I agree with what you didn't say. Milum. ( Sorry Ananastrophic, I have forgotten my password letters.)
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