I was watching buffy and the eighth episode of the first season a demon is scanned into the computers. This is a funny time as its when people where online with dialup. All the same it had a quote I feel is apropos to the current period. Truns out that show had a bit of the simpsons precog ability:
Giles: Nonsense! I simply don’t adhere to a, a knee-jerk assumption that because something is new, it’s better.
Ms. Calendar: This isn’t a fad, Rupert! We are creating a new society here.
Giles: A society in which human interaction is all but obsolete? In which people can be completely manipulated by technology, well, well… Thank you, I’ll pass.
Yes, there’s something lost, but there’s something gained as well. By linking to things, we can refer people to a source without sending them to the library. We can show others photos or diagrams without having to carry them around in our pockets all the time. We aren’t bound by time or distance.
yet so many sources are of questionable quality and so rarely are the pictures of anything useful. We have greatly increased efficiency but often have lost quality.