https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/internet/ai-labs-buy-scan-shred-millions-of-rare-books/news-story/0c3b45a67093ab462a587a0348538ce9
This is just wrong full stop! One thing they always forget is, what happens when there is no internet connection available? What are they going to do then, how will you read a digital copy? It’s just the same with physical currency, if you don’t have cold hard cash when the lines go down at the shop, the chemist or paying for fuel you are in for a bad time. Rural areas often have problems with internet and telephone lines. There are often dead spots where the signal is weak and struggles for a connection, so whether it’s accessing your bank account or going online to read you need to think about what to do if you can’t get access.
People seem to lack the critical thinking skills when it comes to power outages, natural disasters or wars. If you can’t access your banking, reading material or anything that needs internet, or even electricity to function and recharge your electrical goods such as your phone, your laptop etc, then you are in trouble.
Maybe you get rid of books and swap to a kindle or reading through an app. That would be a huge mistake, just because you can doesn’t mean you should, as the saying goes. Common sense means planning for such situations where you don’t have any electricity or there is an internet disruption lasting hours or a few days.
But destroying these old books is a whole new level entirely, we recall historically Hitler burning books. But this is on a massive scale, historical books so rare that once gone are gone for good. Some books are very valuable as collector items too. Does this mean they would destroy these books? Unlikely because they are in the hands of collectors who would never part with the books. But old obscure books are the target here, some have valuable information that will be gone forever unless people actually know the titles to search for them. On a data base or cloud that may eventually need more storage space they could be deleted and that’s them gone forever. A world based on machines and technology is not the sort of world many people want either.
There is so much to lose with this insatiable demand for a brave new world order. The world emerging is not designed for proper hands on real life experiences, like the feel of a book. Especially an old book handed down for the next generation to enjoy. The style of writing and the language of another time gives real feeling to a book, whether it’s a novel or a non fiction book, even science books from the early 20th century are important as a reference point of how people thought at that point in time.
The quality of the materials used to produce the books, the author, the country and year of publication are also important. There is so much human history to a book that technology cannot comprehend nor convey to the reader. What it feels like to hold a very old book, the smell of the pages, that dusty odour of the years, that stimulates the senses when we pick up a very old book is all part of the experience and pleasure we feel having such a tactile experience.
Point to keep in mind is, if there is money to be made in this, then they definitely will do this in Australia eventually, as it is its full steam ahead building data centres. So I am sure it’s not that far off unless the government actively does something to prevent this. But it’s all down to money, manipulation and who is able to lean on the government to get what they want. The Australian government is a pushover when it comes to money and disregarding the public’s wishes and rights.
People these days also feel life is losing all meaning as the Australian government sells out to the highest bidder, allowing other countries to bully them into submission on any given issue. The loss of millions of old books up to 2022 is rewriting history too. Those at the top of this can and will redact whatever they feel like doing. It is very important to hold on to books especially non fiction educational materials. Then such things as the arts, poetry and classical literature must be preserved for future generations and for reference purposes.
