[1292] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Dead trees and humanities
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (news@Think.COM)
Wed Sep 23 12:46:20 1992
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1992 11:17:39 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: news@Think.COM
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
From: ses@cmns-sun.think.com (Simon Edward Spero)
Subject: Re: Dead trees and humanities
In article <PACS-L%92092210403876@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU> Walt Crawford
<BR.WCC@RLG.BITNET> writes:
Re "ksumme01"'s charming comments about dead trees and the
humanities...
absolutists of any stripe (death-of-print advocates among them)
have consistent answers for serious objections: make fun of
them.
That's a libel! I made those charming comments! :-) Karen S Summerhill
wrote the original article to which mine was a response. The final
line contained the latin phrase 'advocatus diaboli', from the latin
'advocatus' meaning 'one who is called in to help', or in a legal context,
a witness or legal adviser, and Diaboli, the gentive singular of
diabolus, hence, '(the) devil's advocate' (or lawyer from hell). My own
position is much less extreme (sitting on my bedside table at the moment
are a leather bound collection of Keats, and volume 9 of the '94 Macmillan
edition of Huxley's essays.)
Before I get back in character, let me bring this back to the one line
that sparked off my entire article, which talked about the desirability of
having *all* information resources under the control of one *central*
authority, the library, who would select what information was worth stocking
based on its own priorities (unless a library has an infinite budget,
it has to make selections- how many libraries carry every single journal in
print (apart from the British Library and the Library of Congress)).
More seriously, those of us who regard an all-electronic
future as both dystopian and improbable may be encouraged
Very seriously, I'd be interested to know precisely what elements of
this you (PACS-L readers) find dystopian. Either post, or send mail to
me, and I'll summarise. Please indicate if you wish to remain anonymous, or
if your reply is not for redistribution.
(The rest of us are doomed to a complex future, combining
books, mass print media, mass electronic media, electronic
publishing, electronic communication, etc. What a shame.)
No-one expects the printed word to disappear within the next decade or so.
The question I was trying to raise in my orignal article was: what is the
intrinsic value added to abstract information by virtue of its being in a
printed, as opposed to any other form?
-walt crawford
my opinions, my words-
Simon
X-Disclaimer: I am not an employee of TMC; I have no connection with them
whatsoever. All comments are solely the responsiblity of the
Author.
