A 2,300 year old idea might soon come true... - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Lebenz · #1 05-15-2006, 12:28 PM

Scan This Book!
By KEVIN KELLY
Published: May 14, 2006

In several dozen nondescript office buildings around the world, thousands of hourly workers bend over table-top scanners and haul dusty books into high-tech scanning booths. They are assembling the universal library page by page.

The dream is an old one: to have in one place all knowledge, past and present. All books, all documents, all conceptual works, in all languages. It is a familiar hope, in part because long ago we briefly built such a library. The great library at Alexandria, constructed around 300 B.C., was designed to hold all the scrolls circulating in the known world. At one time or another, the library held about half a million scrolls, estimated to have been between 30 and 70 percent of all books in existence then. But even before this great library was lost, the moment when all knowledge could be housed in a single building had passed. Since then, the constant expansion of information has overwhelmed our capacity to contain it. For 2,000 years, the universal library, together with other perennial longings like invisibility cloaks, antigravity shoes and paperless offices, has been a mythical dream that kept receding further into the infinite future.

Until now. When Google announced in December 2004 that it would digitally scan the books of five major research libraries to make their contents searchable, the promise of a universal library was resurrected. Indeed, the explosive rise of the Web, going from nothing to everything in one decade, has encouraged us to believe in the impossible again. Might the long-heralded great library of all knowledge really be within our grasp?

Brewster Kahle, an archivist overseeing another scanning project, says that the universal library is now within reach. "This is our chance to one-up the Greeks!" he shouts. "It is really possible with the technology of today, not tomorrow. We can provide all the works of humankind to all the people of the world. It will be an achievement remembered for all time, like putting a man on the moon." And unlike the libraries of old, which were restricted to the elite, this library would be truly democratic, offering every book to every person.

But the technology that will bring us a planetary source of all written material will also, in the same gesture, transform the nature of what we now call the book and the libraries that hold them. The universal library and its "books" will be unlike any library or books we have known. Pushing us rapidly toward that Eden of everything, and away from the paradigm of the physical paper tome, is the hot technology of the search engine.

1. Scanning the Library of Libraries

Scanning technology has been around for decades, but digitized books didn't make much sense until recently, when search engines like Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN came along. When millions of books have been scanned and their texts are made available in a single database, search technology will enable us to grab and read any book ever written. Ideally, in such a complete library we should also be able to read any article ever written in any newspaper, magazine or journal. And why stop there? The universal library should include a copy of every painting, photograph, film and piece of music produced by all artists, present and past. Still more, it should include all radio and television broadcasts. Commercials too. And how can we forget the Web? The grand library naturally needs a copy of the billions of dead Web pages no longer online and the tens of millions of blog posts now gone — the ephemeral literature of our time. In short, the entire works of humankind, from the beginning of recorded history, in all languages, available to all people, all the time.

This is a very big library. But because of digital technology, you'll be able to reach inside it from almost any device that sports a screen. From the days of Sumerian clay tablets till now, humans have "published" at least 32 million books, 750 million articles and essays, 25 million songs, 500 million images, 500,000 movies, 3 million videos, TV shows and short films and 100 billion public Web pages. All this material is currently contained in all the libraries and archives of the world. When fully digitized, the whole lot could be compressed (at current technological rates) onto 50 petabyte hard disks. Today you need a building about the size of a small-town library to house 50 petabytes. With tomorrow's technology, it will all fit onto your iPod. When that happens, the library of all libraries will ride in your purse or wallet — if it doesn't plug directly into your brain with thin white cords. Some people alive today are surely hoping that they die before such things happen, and others, mostly the young, want to know what's taking so long. (Could we get it up and running by next week? They have a history project due.)

Note: This is page one of a 10 page article

The rest is at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/magazine/14publishing.html

Botnst · #2 05-15-2006, 01:03 PM

Wow! Awesome! Stupendous!

I can't think of a superlative that covers this. What an amazing project.

Wasn't the University of Texas doing something like this, but with an AI outcome in mind? If I remember correctly they were developing some sort of 'intelligent' inference engine to analyze the scanned books.

Kuan · #3 05-15-2006, 03:03 PM

This idea isn't all that new. Project Gutenberg has been on the internet since about 1991. It's been on quite a few different servers since.

Maroon 300D · #4 05-15-2006, 03:24 PM

It's a fantastically worthwhile project. Hopefully there won't be any modern-day Romans to burn it down.

pj67coll · #5 05-15-2006, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maroon 300D

It's a fantastically worthwhile project. Hopefully there won't be any modern-day Romans to burn it down.

Romans?

- Peter.

Maroon 300D · #6 05-15-2006, 04:40 PM

Romans burned the Library of Alexandria. Plutarch says it was ordered by Julius Caeser. It seems many of the documents were simply moved to another library, though. According to Arab historians a Caliph eventually ordered their destruction.

Hatterasguy · #7 05-15-2006, 05:08 PM

What can't you fin online already?

Wikapedia has just about everything it seems.

mikemover · #8 05-15-2006, 05:09 PM

They're going to run into a BIG problem eventually, if they plan to archive ALL books in existence:

Copyright Laws. Intellectual Property. Publishing rights.

Anybody remember these concepts?

If EVERY book is made available online, for free... then authors and publishers are screwed!... Not to mention editors, printers, distributors, bookstores.... There will be backlash and drama similar to what we've seen in the music and film industries in recent years.

The quality of literature that is produced from that point on will most likely suffer, as I believe has been the case with music recently.

Unlike some folks (such as the recording industry's ridiculous futile lawsuit-war against mp3 downloading), I'm not advocating trying to "stuff the Genie back in the bottle" by stifling the technology or the efforts of those involved...

But if this idea is to be successful, then there MUST be a means in place to financially compensate those who CREATE this literature.

Mike

mikemover · #9 05-15-2006, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Wikapedia has just about everything it seems.

Hardly.

They are talking about digitally archiving EVERY book in existence on the planet. Wikipedia, although a vast and handy resource, does not even come CLOSE to that.

Mike

Maroon 300D · #10 05-15-2006, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikemover

The quality of literature that is produced from that point on will most likely suffer, as I believe has been the case with music recently.
Mike

I don't think the quality of music has suffered, but I do think you now have to look in different places to find it.

There are lots of good acts who tour all over the country but don't get radio airplay and don't sell many CD's in stores.

As for the copyright laws, they might try archiving all books written up to, say, 50 years ago.

The best musicians and writers, I think, aren't in it entirely for the money.

Maroon 300D · #11 05-15-2006, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

What can't you fin online already?

Wikapedia has just about everything it seems.

..including that info. I posted on the Library of Alexandria

mikemover · #12 05-15-2006, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maroon 300D

I don't think the quality of music has suffered, but I do think you now have to look in different places to find it.

There are lots of good acts who tour all over the country but don't get radio airplay and don't sell many CD's in stores.

As for the copyright laws, they might try archiving all books written up to, say, 50 years ago.

The best musicians and writers, I think, aren't in it entirely for the money.

Yes, I've been one of those acts who toured the country.... We did actually get quite a respectable amount of rock radio airplay, but even with that.... it is VERY difficult to make money at it. Always has been. But technology, although I love it and support it, has greatly worsened the situation in recent years (for a variety of reasons that I won't bore everyone with right now).

I agree that the best musicians and writers are not "in it for the money". But one must still pay the bills. It would be nice if those who are truly great at what they do could be compensated appropriately. It would also be nice if people didn't have to go on a "treasure hunt" to find such quality.

But now I'm just dreaming. Our society has somehow fallen into a downward spiral of rewarding mediocrity, and I see no end in sight at the moment.

Mike

Kuan · #13 05-15-2006, 06:07 PM

The issue of what gets scanned and copyright is addressed in the article.

pj67coll · #14 05-15-2006, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maroon 300D

Romans burned the Library of Alexandria. Plutarch says it was ordered by Julius Caeser. It seems many of the documents were simply moved to another library, though. According to Arab historians a Caliph eventually ordered their destruction.

Evidently it's been burned down more than once in history then. The only instance I was previously aware of was when the early christians burned it down under the leadership of a bishop names Cyril. Obviously that was somewhat after Julius Ceasers time.

- Peter.

Maroon 300D · #15 05-15-2006, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj67coll

Evidently it's been burned down more than once in history then. The only instance I was previously aware of was when the early christians burned it down under the leadership of a bishop names Cyril. Obviously that was somewhat after Julius Ceasers time.

- Peter.

That was a different library that ancient writers sometimes referred to as the Library of Alexandria. I think most of the info. from the original library was moved there, so the difference may have been a moot point to most people.

I believe that only the original library was considered an ancient 'wonder of the world.'