Thomas has evidently been reading David Weinberger. He points out that

The Web folds space in a way that (most of) human knowledge is within our arm’s reach.

He then asks how Frank Herbert would have felt.

Myself, I always ask myself, whenever I read a pre-Web SciFi novel, whether the author could have foreseen the Web.

In any case, it is true that the Web warps time and space. By that I mean that where, physically, the documents are is without concern for you. The Web also speeds up information retrieval tremendously.

Suppose you were the only human being with access to the Web as we know it. You would be able to pull out knowledge faster than any other human being. You would appear like a super hero. You can tell instantly the prices of a given product in hundreds of stores. You can get a satellite view of any house in your area, in seconds. And so on.

2 Comments »

  1. Does it make us (heavy Internet users) more knowledgeable? Do we benefit the time warp and learn in one year what someone in the 80s was learning in 2 years? What if we compare Phd thesis from the 1987 with that of 2007, would we perceive that it convey more information?

    Comment by David — 4/9/2007 @ 7:34

  2. more sources-yes,information-no.

    Comment by innar — 4/9/2007 @ 12:36

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