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> So, the burning of the library at Alexandria was a catastrophe for our understanding of ancient civilization, but enough was preserved that we still have what

> So, the burning of the library at Alexandria was a catastrophe for our understanding of ancient civilization, but enough was preserved that we still have what is essentially a Greco-Roman understanding and practice of government, philosophy, history, etc. I think that's a bold statement. This is circular reasoning: since we know resources that we have, obviously we know what they do contain. I remember university lectures on ancient Roman history, conducted by a serious researcher in the field, where he said how our general understanding of Roman political system could be changed if we had a couple inches less (or more) of papyrus of Festus: an author who lived way after the interesting stuff but managed to survive. In fact historical writings that are preserved for us seem to have seriously warped our understanding (in a pro-Senate & optimates, conservative way). Only relatively recently we are trying to correct that by reaching for some more obscure sources and reading more closely. Many important things we will never know. Obviously people caring about history will be always a small portion of the population, just as with many other pursuits.

sverige 8y ago
I don't know. We've got a lot of the main writers, and we've got references to some of the books that were lost forever in the fire. I agree that there was some valuable information lost in the fire. But in the main, I think the broad outlines were preserved, or we probably would't even have the concept of circular reasoning. Obviously there was a period where much of that was irrelevant anyway, after the barbarian hordes overran the weak and degenerate remnants of the Roman empire. When the revival came over half a millenium later, did they get it all right? Probably not, but it was a definite change from what existed in the interim. And some of that culture was preserved through the Roman church, though in a muted way. More to the point of the original discussion, are you really concerned that anything of lasting value would be lost if the entire internet were deleted? Maybe technical information, sure, but culturally not so much imo.
- formerentourage 8y ago
  TBH internetization of reality is still very much an ongoing process, likely to expand much further in the future. At least if we want to extrapolate, there might be a backlash, who knows (I can imagine internet gaining a boring, authoritarian image like television around the turn of milennium). "Big" political events had an important online aspect in recent years. New cultural phenomena, art genres etc. emerge here. I have to admit, imagining nuking the entire internet is funny intellectually. It would leave us with a low connectivity, low-res "slow" version of history, something more resembling "long 1990s" or what a stubborn pre-milennial person may still be experiencing now. Would it be warped beyond recognition? Probably not, not yet. You could still reconstruct Western societies in broad strokes. But I think the cultural history at least would suffer significantly.

sverige 8y ago

I don't know. We've got a lot of the main writers, and we've got references to some of the books that were lost forever in the fire. I agree that there was some valuable information lost in the fire. But in the main, I think the broad outlines were preserved, or we probably would't even have the concept of circular reasoning. Obviously there was a period where much of that was irrelevant anyway, after the barbarian hordes overran the weak and degenerate remnants of the Roman empire. When the revival came over half a millenium later, did they get it all right? Probably not, but it was a definite change from what existed in the interim. And some of that culture was preserved through the Roman church, though in a muted way. More to the point of the original discussion, are you really concerned that anything of lasting value would be lost if the entire internet were deleted? Maybe technical information, sure, but culturally not so much imo.

formerentourage 8y ago
TBH internetization of reality is still very much an ongoing process, likely to expand much further in the future. At least if we want to extrapolate, there might be a backlash, who knows (I can imagine internet gaining a boring, authoritarian image like television around the turn of milennium). "Big" political events had an important online aspect in recent years. New cultural phenomena, art genres etc. emerge here. I have to admit, imagining nuking the entire internet is funny intellectually. It would leave us with a low connectivity, low-res "slow" version of history, something more resembling "long 1990s" or what a stubborn pre-milennial person may still be experiencing now. Would it be warped beyond recognition? Probably not, not yet. You could still reconstruct Western societies in broad strokes. But I think the cultural history at least would suffer significantly.