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by coffeeblack 1565 days ago
Maybe the Internet and its function as memory of humankind may break that cycle in the future?
3 comments

but books has been available for a long time - wouldn't this have made a difference?
Books are more abstract. The internet has video and sound and casual conversations and memes and the daily trivialities of the life of millions of ordinary people.

If books and newspapers made a as difference when they were new, I don’t know. But now I want to know.

Indexing, barrier to entry, higher degree of perspectives and levels of explanation/understanding, different mediums, etc.
Unfortunately, large parts of human memory are 404.

I wish that was just a pithy remark - link rot is really, and it's rapid. Add to that that modern paper is deteriorating at a rapid pace, and the memory of humankind is starting to look shaky.

The internet is pull-based. Grandparents push their experiences to their offspring.
True. But I could imagine that 100 years from now, kids may browse the Facebook feed of their great grandparents, maybe even as a immersive 3D recreation of the life of their relative from a century ago. Including all their personal notes and thoughts.