Preserving Literature

After listening to the A Point of View podcast from BBC I began doing something in regards to Mr. Carr’s Is Google Making us Stupid.  The podcast in my opinion explains the needs for a safeguard of all information.  Mrs. Jardine explained papers and texts as “vulnerable” to being burned and destroyed without any backup copy.  This of course would mean a loss of crucial information, documentation etc.

            Listening solidified my view of Carr’s article furthermore.  The Internet allows a plethora of information while being able to securely keep in safe hands.  Crucial works of literature can be saved to hard drives where they are saved forever.  After noting in the podcast that there was too much literature to possibly keep safe back in the day we now have places that we can store it and continually update it.  The risk of losing important information over the Internet is much smaller then having a library burned, destroying all of its contents. 

            It was clear in the podcast that fear of losing the information was more significant than the information we have today making us “stupid”.  Take for example her sock explanation.  If we had written works on how to properly mend socks they would be hard to find and could have been destroyed overtime.  However, being able to upload the information to the Internet allows people to access a simple tutorial on how to properly go about fixing a sock.  This information is now easier than ever to find which in my opinion makes us smarter by Goggling, rather than having to spend countless hours finding the answer.

            In my honest opinion I don’t see the Internet ever making us “stupid”, lazy? Yes but not less intelligent.  We, thanks to technology have access to anything we need with a simple click of the mouse, how would we attaint the same information if it had be burned centuries ago? We would not be able to. Take for instance IBM's new technology prototype, it is enabling the British Library to archive and safeguard large quantities of Web pages, and then unlock the virtual door to its archives for generations to come.  This secures reputable information now available by typing what we desire into Google, for eternity.

Lilla, Karen. "IBM Helps British Library Preserve Information on the Web for

     Generations to Come." IBM.com. IBM, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.

     <http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/29518.wss>.