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!@#$%! · 10.08.2015, 09:42 AM

@ rob re: 1500s. i don't know that this low number is true, or that it will stay static. and most of those ancient books are obsolete anyway. e.g., after newton's theory of gravitation, kant speculated that the universe must be infinite and stars spaced out evenly in order to keep themselves from falling into each other.

beyond the history of science/antiquarian/academic aspect of that, there's little reason to be reading those theories these days, because we know that the universe is expanding, etc., and facts have replaced speculation. so there's no need for everyone to read 100% of all the ancient books-- and we still have libraries that will continue to archive objects. the digitization is to make these texts widely available to the public so there is nothing moronic about it unless you destroy the source.

oh, and when you talk about every book published you need to take into account the massive bulk of publishing that is done for things like the ever-changing field of technology. do you need a car maintenance book from the 50s? do you need a tv-antenna installer manual? do you need an A+ certification handbook from the 90s? future archaeologists might be interested, but if you repair tvs or install cable or repair computers today you need only the most recent edition.

10.08.2015, 09:42 AM	#4150
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,464	@ rob re: 1500s. i don't know that this low number is true, or that it will stay static. and most of those ancient books are obsolete anyway. e.g., after newton's theory of gravitation, kant speculated that the universe must be infinite and stars spaced out evenly in order to keep themselves from falling into each other. beyond the history of science/antiquarian/academic aspect of that, there's little reason to be reading those theories these days, because we know that the universe is expanding, etc., and facts have replaced speculation. so there's no need for everyone to read 100% of all the ancient books-- and we still have libraries that will continue to archive objects. the digitization is to make these texts widely available to the public so there is nothing moronic about it unless you destroy the source. oh, and when you talk about every book published you need to take into account the massive bulk of publishing that is done for things like the ever-changing field of technology. do you need a car maintenance book from the 50s? do you need a tv-antenna installer manual? do you need an A+ certification handbook from the 90s? future archaeologists might be interested, but if you repair tvs or install cable or repair computers today you need only the most recent edition.
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