The Encyclopedia...
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Nifty Endtable |
Raise your hand if you've ever owned a
set of encyclopedias. I have. I would have to say that they were an
integral part of my rearing as a child. I may have mentioned this
before but while I was growing up my parents had a little study with
a bookshelf. Prominent amidst the bookshelf were my father's old sets
of encyclopedias. They were late 60's Golden Key of Knowledge,
Encyclopedia Britannica and few others. I loved reading them. Well, I
liked looking at all the cool pictures. But still that time spent
laid the foundation for my appreciation of knowledge.
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Cool Lampstand |
Over the years those encyclopedias
became mine and I added a few more as I entered high school. They
were my mother's investment in my future. I would say that was money
well spent. I often referenced them while working on my myriad
reports and term papers. I still have all of them too. After several
moves in my life I lugged all of them around. I just don't have the
heart to get rid of them. The knowledge now available at my
fingertips online well surpasses that dated knowledge. Still though
they represent snapshots of knowledge and the world as we understood
it. To me they still have value. Even if right now they all happen to
still be in boxes.
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Letter Inbox |
Other people, well they are less
attached to these strange books that used to be needed before the
days of Wikipedia and WebMD. The followers of the great god Kindle no
longer have a need for all the pernicious space hoggers. So those
that have not consigned their old World Books to the nearest landfill
or biomass facility have re purposed theirs in unique ways.
I wonder what Pliny the Elder, author
of the Naturalis Historia, would
think of this new age of modern convenience. Those ancient texts
really took a concerted effort to make. Heck people 2000 years ago
there was no telephone let alone a hand held smartphone with more
computing power than the Moon landings. He had to travel all across
the Roman Empire collecting stories, visiting libraries doing his
best to weigh between fact and fiction. All the while guarding
against the hubris of Man which he didn't care too much for.
"Such is the audacity of man, that he hath learned to counterfeit Nature, yea, and is so bold as to challenge her in her work."
Would
he value this great repository of knowledge at his fingertips which
he helped set in motion ages ago?
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Sigh... |