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Nonzero chance we'll all have to go back to using physical libraries for research in a few years, so I guess that's a silver lining.
You mean the ones being constantly defunded and having their reading materials banned?
I mean for research I'd prefer to use either a university or reference library. But even an underfunded library with banned books is a better resource than a largely unmonitored black box that confidently lies to you. At least when you look for a resource and it's not there you're certain in the lack of information.
you're certain in the lack of information
If you know that information is missing, yes.
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Glad I've been hoarding books
i think this is a genuine possibility in schools now, at least in my country. maybe not removing access to the internet entirely, but at least severely restricting it, and going back to analog teaching methods wherever possible.
we were very early on digitalizing education btw, giving every elementary school kid their own tablet, implementing digital tools in almost every subject, and in recent years, replacing physical books with digital copies.
and surprise surprise, it's been a fucking disaster. i can't even imagine what it'll be like as AI gets more widespread
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I like them, but a) I tend to ruin them if I'm ever carting them around (especially if they're paperbacks) and b) I've noticed that when I have a book on my phone, it's much easier to dip into it and read a few paragraphs in the in between moments when I would otherwise open social media or something. With a physical book it's much less likely I'll dig it out of my bag if I'm waiting for the bus for five minutes and my hands are full.
How much of it has to do with the fact that adults are just as clueless about how to use computers as kids?
Is it really that hard to just have people use computers the same way they'd use books? Not everything needs to start with a Google search.
You can still use the internet to look at books and documents. Random websites and Google search have never been a replacement for actual research.
How do you find your research without any search engines and/or do you think the engine you're using will never try to implement an llm-based search? Corporate has its fist deep in academia these days...
You find things through real-world networking, or hyperlinks from other websites. Of course it's much easier to use a general search engine like Google. The point is that a search engine becoming bad doesn't suddenly mean "the internet" is unusable and you have to resort to going to a library or something.
I just don't like it when people conflate a couple large websites with the "internet" itself, which is really just an evolution of telephone and telegraph systems that connect the world together. The utility of accessing remote data doesn't go away. And pretending it does is hyperbole.
The internet is also so much more open and easy to access than any system before it. Telephone and telegraph systems were so much more limited. Like a phone number is attached to your identity as a real person in a way that an IP address or network interface isn't. That's a really powerful thing.
Can't we just make our own internet at this point?
