Re: Information & Power /Alexandria library

Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
04 May 1999 20:25:37 +0200

"Michael S. Lorrey" <mike@lorrey.com> writes:

> Destruction of the library probably helped the development of
>scientific technological culture, because the loss of its knowledge,
>right or wrong, inspired generations of men to conduct original
>research using the scientific method to 'recover' that 'lost'
>knowledge.

Huh? I don't see much evidence for this. Among the humanities it has indeed caused much research, trying to piece together the *original* Illiad or _The State_, but among the natural sciences there was never the same recover-mentality, not even during the renaissance.

>As a result we have reached ever higher levels of
>acheivement. I think that if the library had remained, we would have
>developed a system which prized respect for the old knowledge over the
>potential of new knowledge.

That is of course a danger. And I think we have seen the effects in some parts of the humanities :-) 

-- 
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Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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