I still have shelves and shelves of books: novels, poetry,
history, biographies. Also reference books.
But do I really need reference books? Isn’t that what the
Internet is all about? Twenty years ago, you had to know how to use a
dictionary, and an encyclopedia, and an almanac, and a phone book, to look
anything up. Now Google and Siri have everything wrapped up.
So long as you have 3G, or 4G, or WiFi, and provided your
battery is all charged up.
The nice thing about those big lumpy reference books is that
they’re not going anywhere. They will
sit on my shelves, ugly and faithful, until they’re called upon for use. They
do not require electricity, or an Internet connection.
What if an electromagnetic pulse (AKA EMP) happens? Or a
huge angry sunspot? Or an attack by hackers from some unfriendly country?
And the Internet goes away. Electricity too, for a while.
What will we do then?
My books will still be useful. It’ll be just like the 1980s.
I think I’ll be able to survive, for a while.
But for the young people who were born after the Net took
over the world, it will be torture.
Poor things.
You can come borrow my dictionary.
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