[iamben]

Whilst I'm pretty sure I'd use this or something like it, it's kinda sad the traditional libraries I used so much (and for free) when I was younger can't keep up with the pace of convenience. I often wonder how long it'll be before the smaller towns (sadly) lose them completely.

That said, good luck to them :-)

[netcan]

This is in a class of things I'm worried about. The good institutions & traditions that we built over decades (or in this case, millennia) becoming obsolete, dying and taking all the side benefits with them. Many lost their primary purpose, but they had so many important auxiliary purposes that I'm worried about losing them. For millennia, libraries stored knowledge and people went there to access it. All sorts of things naturally grew around this resource. Universities and their predecessors are one example but there are also small informal institutions. A group of friends meeting in a library because it is a a safe and quite place to do homework is an institution of sorts. A couple of homeless people using it as a safe place to hang out, read books and feel part of society is another example, especially if their interaction with others there is special in some way (it is).

There are lots of things like this. Churches. How do we do churches without gods? How do we allow young people to spend a few years focusing on their minds without universities. Can we have universities after going to lectures becomes obsolete?

Technology is eating a lot of things. It's eating them faster than we can replace them.

[_hcuq]

Technology is eating our souls.

[kmfrk]

It varies a lot, depending on what you read. I basically had my local library of classical literature and philosophy all to myself, but I'd have to wait months to get something like the next Harry Potter.

Maybe it's more of a feature than a bug. :)

[wil421]

What happens to all the information we have converted to digital form if a worldwide disaster occurred?

Think like a nuclear war and the resulting EMP wipes out most of the US/EU/Asia electronics.

Think even a massive solar flare that fries the majority of the electronic equipment.