Comment by Drakim
2 years ago
You aren't wrong, but this has been a dilemma with every new technology. The camera had that effect, modern metalworking had that effect, even tractors had that effect.
It's definitely a problem we should be talking about, but we can't go back in time or remain frozen, the genie never goes back in the bottle. We have to move forward towards the future while salvaging the parts of the past we want to bring with us.
We need efficiency when we want to maximize comfort and minimize labor.
But nothing forbids people to pursue less efficient endeavors during their free time. There are people maintaining old cars and locomotive. There are people gardening or woodworking "inefficiently" for their own pleasure.
What we remove is the need to force people to work on these fields. Whether we abandon them altogether depends solely on our culture.
> But nothing forbids people to pursue less efficient endeavors during their free time.
Assuming they have free time.
This line of thought goes back to Socrates and his supposed views on writing. (That it weakens the memory)
The major difference is that in the event that there's a catastrophic event, we won't be able to build the tech we need because the intermediate steps will be lost.
It is also how we know there hasn't been a civilization more advanced than us that left without a trace. All the oil that was easy to extract has been extracted.
I don't think that follows, it is easy to imagine an alternative history without all the hissyfits about nuclear fission or with real investment into nuclear fusion starting in the 70s.
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"What if something happens to all the books"
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