Discussion¬

1. mokurai says:

   January 29, 2015 at 1:10 pm

   Boswell wrote that Samuel Johnson said

   "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and at the backs of books in libraries."

   So 18th century. Considering the vast range of human ignorance on everything outside the various narrow specialties of various experts, being able to Google better is actually as good as it gets right now, and far better than any physical library ever could be.

   Yeah, I Googled Johnson to get the full quotation, but I knew there was something to Google.

   What depresses me is how bad everybody else is at it. Not only do so many people not know how to Google well, they don't even think to try. Also Wikipedia, YouTube, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, various scientific archives, movies and TV at IMDB, TV Tropes, Know Your Meme, the Urban Legends pages at Snopes.com, and so many more.

   Then there are the anti-information sites. Intentionally comic ones like Uncyclopedia and the Journal of Irreproducible Results meant to get you thinking and laughing, and oh-so-serious ones like Conservapedia and Answers in Genesis intended to make sure their little kiddies don't.

   Buck up, Lemont. Just intending to teach your boy about both reality and Star Trek puts you ahead of the game.