Freakonomics on Libraries
July 10, 2007
In light of my recent absence, I thought that I would link up a nice article that I found over at the Freakonomics blog. They recently wrote a quick piece on how difficult it would be to start a system similar to the public libraries in today's IP climate. It is really interesting, and important, to think about how today's laws and regulations are restricting the intellectual growth of the future.
Libraries serve a number of purposes. One, they allow the citizenry access to media. This allows individual citizens that ability to learn from copyrighted works (you know, that thing the government invented to encourage the betterment of society through more creative works) and develop themselves personally without being forced to pay large sums of money. This is especially important in individuals who do not have necessary funding for such endeavors, such as those from low-income families, children and even the elderly.
There is, however, a second and incredibly important purpose that libraries serve; that is preservation of society both for its own sake and for future historians and scholars. You see, without libraries many classical works would simply be lost by time crumbling away on someone's shelves. However, with the ability to disseminate these media to citizens it is able to reach out and be continued - both from the protection of a central repository and from the sheer access.
As an intellectual person living today, I'm forced to wonder just how today's society will be preserved in this fashion. With modern copyright restrictions in the draconian state that they are, even backups of software are illegal. When my old Doom disks finally disintegrate, shall I be forced to violate federal law in order to preserve a crucial branch in video gaming history? Or will it slowly fade into the background and disappear?
You may say, "hogwash! Video games and movies are nothing but trash and violence that are for little whippersnappers to kill their brains with!"... but remember that Shakespeare was trash in his day. He is now considered to be a literary flower blooming brightly with every "where for art thou Romeo?".
So, to the great series of tubes I commit this fluttering thought... short of becoming criminals, how can we preserve our own historical heritage? How will our kids listen to Eddie Van Halen and play Doom to see what daddy grew up with?
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8 Comments
| Tagged: Freakonomics, Libraries, History, Culture, Rants
Draz 2007/07/10
I recommend reading the book "Earth Abides." Though it was written pre-internets, it's still a pretty good book. A man named Ish goes into the mountains of California for a couple of weeks and gets bitten by a Rattlesnake. He spends several feverish days in a cabin before recovering and returning to society only to find out, hey, there's been a global virus outbreak, just about everyone's dead and it was the snakebike that somehow allowed him to survive. The book talks about how quickly man-made structures would crumble without yearly maintenence and minor repairs. Potholes become sinkholes. Fires rage unabated. Eventually Ish and a small group of survivors refound civilization, but the kids pretty much have no interest in reading and most culture is completely wiped out... save odd bits here and there, like kids repeating rock and roll songs they've heard the adults sing, even though they have no idea what rock and roll is.
Anyway, assuming that we aren't all killed by some global disaster, the next generation of kids will look back at your stuff and say "Wow, you actually sat and played this junk?" Look at it this way... do you play your parents' 8-tracks or vinyl albums?
And while Shakespeare wasn't necessarily idolized in his time as he is today, I wouldn't say that he was considered trash. His acting company performed for the royal court 37 times and he became an extremely wealthy bastard from his work.
Jordan T. Cox 2007/07/11
Well thought out comment is well thought out. The book you have described intrigues me, perhaps a visit to Amazon.com will be necessary. I do always love a good post-apocalyptic drama. Perhaps the Gnomish expedition will cause such a catastrophe?
Really, preserving the technology behind things itself is important as well - but the point I was trying to make here was really more about preserving the content. On that note, I can respond to your second to last paragraph by simply asking you what kind of music Andy T.'s parents listen to. Now, have you ever heard any of the same music coming from Andy T.'s iPod?
Also, P Diddy is an extremely wealthy bastard from his work.
Also, when are we having the next Dungeons and Dragons session?
Andy 2007/07/11
As soon as James has a day off, which could be a while...
Jordan T. Cox 2007/07/11
As soon as James has a day off which is not related to this coming Saturday's LAN gaming action!
Andy 2007/07/11
Indeed. We should totally try to get Warcraft II working. Maybe Vista can handle it better!
Andy 2007/07/11
Oh, and one more thing. My fathers iPod and my iPod have a lot of the same songs on it. I'm a huge fan of classic rock. My Dad and I even went and saw Van Halen together. Much of my music library on my computer was directly ripped from my fathers CDs.
Draz 2007/07/12
Many replies are many.
Tiegs may listen to a lot of the bands his father listens to, but only the really popular ones I'd wager. For every excellent band or musician that has survived Andy's Dad's era, there are at least a dozen bad ones that have died out and are not listened to anymore. Therefore, destruction of culture is inevitable, and we shouldn't worry about preserving it; it's a living thing that changes all the time. Besides, once you die, you really won't care about what sort of content survived you; in fact, you won't be able to think at all, so it's kind of a moot point. (Yay futility!)
Also, I believe you just implied that P. Diddy is the Shakespeare of our generation.
Next DnD session = not for a while, but I'm updating our wiki in the meantime: http://magicmissile.pbwiki.com.
Jordan T. Cox 2007/07/12
Ok, fine. Just let me continue watching my goddamned Haruhi when I'm 90. Umkay? Btw, you make an excellent DM Draz.
Andy; I do not think that we will ever be getting war2 to work. Sadly, you will be relegated to glorious memories... or bringing a serial cable (I think that's what a null-modem cable is... wikipedia probably knows) over someday.