Reply 20 of 52, by ThinkpadIL
ncmark wrote on 2024-01-10, 13:16:This has turned into quite the discussion […]
This has turned into quite the discussion
This goes beyond computers. I work in higher ed, and am seeing this same thing in this push towards e-books. I am sorry, but for me something on a computer will NEVER be the same as a printed page. Furthermore, many of these e-books are only good for that year. So what happens when students get into an upper-division class and they want to refer back to their freshman book for something? Too bad, it's gone!
Another case in point - netflix. I recently was talking to someone who is on netflix and we were talking about three movies I have watched recently. Oh let me see if they have that. Oh, don't have it. Oh, don't have it,. Oh, don't gave it. Then what the #### good is it.
Al this sounds like a great way to control people. Controversial book or movie, just take it down. Read some news story on the internet, go back and look at it the next day and suddenly it's gone or changed. Nothing is permanent anymore.
Permanent? There is nothing permanent in this world.
Knowledge you've got in the 1st grade becomes in many aspects irrelevant even before you manage to finish your high school. Each printed book has lots of prints, revisions and editions. Each mass produced product may differ even from shift to shift. And if you ask me about books, I also like printed books, but only for reading or just to enjoy this format. Printed books are not good for work or study. PDF or any other digital format is way more convenient for these purposes since you can't keep in your pocket the whole library of printed books and to proceed a text search in matter of seconds or to share with others certain parts of the text.
And Netflix is not the only service of its kind, there are many others to use in addition, just like you subscribe to many different channels on Youtube.
As of AI, it's just another technological tool. It has zero chances against us humans since we are smarter and much more sophisticated than AI.