[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

The one thing that really bugs me is people who think that because we've had Internet for a decade and a half, that we'll always have it. They are willing to bet everything on having uninterrupted Internet access.

To a large extent, we are betting on our technological infrastructure continuing to exist and function.

My goal is to have a library that covers all the knowledge known to man, emphasizing the useful stuff. Food production, self defense, transportation, auto repair, and medical care and very useful. Architecture & bridge design are useful. Great books are somewhat useful. Art is not useful.

Hmmm. A survivalist?

I think "art is not useful" betrays a misunderstanding of the nature and function of art.

How can my library survive? The only answer I can find is: redundancy. If you hand out enough pocket calculators, someone will always have one around. Yes, they can be damaged. Yes, the disks can develop errors. Yes, they can get too old to work. Still, a million dollar-store libraries will outlast a few expensive systems.

And paper books will outlast all of them.

The question is, how likely do you think your efforts are to be needed, and why?

Have you ever read L. Neil Smith's North American Confederacy series? ("The Probability Broach," "The American Zone," etc.?) He imagines libertarians/anarchists taking over the world by dropping in easily concealable weapons by the billion to repressed people. It's a cause I've supported for years. If you arm the victims of genocide, you make the genocide a lot harder.

But you make attempts at it easier. If someone is the victim of attempted genocide, do you think most won't try to return the favor if they have the means and plausible suspects at hand?

Adding my library into that equation, it's hard to keep people ignorant when they have pocket libraries that expose them to every idea in existence.

You need more than exposure tio the ideas. You need a context in which the ideas are meaningful.

I'm sure people will find my ideas abhorrent. They believe that only certain groups in society need power.

In any society there will be power, and those who have it. Societies may differ in how power is obtained and held, but it will exist.

My view is that information is always good. I want everyone to know everything.

Whether they want to or not?

As it happens, I agree, but you'll get a fair bit of resistance from many you would like to empower with this knowledge.

Andy

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Dennis