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The article's thought experiment is useless, it's not even internally consistent. He imagines a world where we could be able to collect old solar panels, but al

The article's thought experiment is useless, it's not even internally consistent. He imagines a world where we could be able to collect old solar panels, but all knowledge is lost. Now what on earth is going to destroy every library in every town all over the earth, but leave solar panels on the rooftops intact? A single small-town library would contain huge amounts of useful knowledge. If we include the knowledge contained in the heads of the survivors, the only realistic way of losing all (or even most) useful knowledge is killing everyone.

dalke 12y ago
"A single small-town library would contain huge amounts of useful knowledge" I can envision a future where libraries have few books. Here's one at a school in Florida - http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-usa-florida-library-idUSKBN0GP0W620140825 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-usa-florida-lib... . Here's a broader commentary about libraries which don't have physical collections, including a public library in San Antonio - http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/is-a-library-still-a-library-if-it-has-no-physical-books http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/is-a-libra... . I doubt that small-town libraries will get rid of all books. Libraries do have collections of local history which are unlikely to be part of a digital archive. (Eg, phone books from the 1950s, local high school yearbooks, photo collections and films about the annual downtown parade, publications from the local genealogical society, etc.) But if in 100 years small-town libraries have mostly switched to digital collections, then yes, it's possible for the knowledge to disappear even if the infrastructure remains. I don't think it's likely, but it's not completely inconsistent.
- tripzilch 12y ago
  They won't do that everywhere. The world's a big place.
PepeGomez 12y ago
You won't find how to do such things in most libraries, you would get the geenral idea, but the details would be still too hard to figure out.
- tripzilch 12y ago
  What do you mean?

dalke 12y ago

"A single small-town library would contain huge amounts of useful knowledge" I can envision a future where libraries have few books. Here's one at a school in Florida - http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-usa-florida-library-idUSKBN0GP0W620140825 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-usa-florida-lib... . Here's a broader commentary about libraries which don't have physical collections, including a public library in San Antonio - http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/is-a-library-still-a-library-if-it-has-no-physical-books http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/is-a-libra... . I doubt that small-town libraries will get rid of all books. Libraries do have collections of local history which are unlikely to be part of a digital archive. (Eg, phone books from the 1950s, local high school yearbooks, photo collections and films about the annual downtown parade, publications from the local genealogical society, etc.) But if in 100 years small-town libraries have mostly switched to digital collections, then yes, it's possible for the knowledge to disappear even if the infrastructure remains. I don't think it's likely, but it's not completely inconsistent.

tripzilch 12y ago
They won't do that everywhere. The world's a big place.

PepeGomez 12y ago

You won't find how to do such things in most libraries, you would get the geenral idea, but the details would be still too hard to figure out.

tripzilch 12y ago
What do you mean?