FROM CHAINED BOOKS TO DATA DELUGE | 2014-05-03
I have talked about The Era of Chained Books repeatedly in these pages.
As with other things I repeat, there's a reason.
In the fifteenth century a wealthy College at Oxford would have maybe twenty hand-copied books and a full-time Librarian. The books were very costly, and were chained to the wall.
Education consisted of being able to quote books in the Greek or Latin it was written in.
The few who found access to the Words were taught the Classical Languages, how to read them.
And they learned to quote the Words. There their work ended.
In the Google Age, that is where intellectual work must BEGIN.
"Intellectuals" belong to the Age of Chained Books, and Mommy Professor still lives in that age.
Whatever Momy Professor might be, the last thing he is is an intellectual.
Today's intellectual is a sleuth, an interrogator.
His job is not to collect information, but to sift the truth out of the deluge.