Bottom Line on Electronic Libraries -Reply

[Edward Wigg]

At 01:08 PM 10/2/96 -0700, Thom Gillespie <thom at copper.ucs.indiana.edu> wrote
in response to C. W. Tazewell wrote:

[Many things with which I am in agreement removed for the sake of bandwidth]

>>      The Internet is a cultural change greater than the
>> Industrial Revolution.
>
>This I agree with. 
>
>--Thom
>

Immense, without doubt; profound, certainly; far reaching, we're all agreed,
but why is it that everybody wants the change they are undergoing to be
greater than any previous change? 

The Internet will do many things we cannot guess at, but I find it hard to
believe that they will produce cultural changes _more_ profound than, say,
reliable artificial light, routine travel beyond a few miles of the place
you were born, employment as we know it (not to mention libraries as we know
them), and all the other fruits (curses) of the industrial revolution --
cultural changes that are still underway. This is just more of the same, faster.

Edward.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Edward Wigg                      "Just another guy, you know?"
Evanston Public Library             e-wigg at evanston.lib.il.us
Evanston, Illinois