From: mike@micros.COM ("Michael J. Lonski")
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Yet more on Brin
Date: 21 Jan 93 19:20:43 GMT

I've been reading the messages back and forth recently about the Library
and how/where/why it's limitations arise and decided to throw in my two
bytes...

I just started rereading the books since it had been awhile, but some things
quickly came to mind.  All (most) references are to _Sundiver_ since my
memories on the others are a little dated.

- Bubbacub talks about sending a query about the "Sun Ghosts" back to his
home library because the Earth branch had nothing on them.  He seemed to
feel that it was a lot more likely to get a good answer from home.  Yet one
more indication that the Earth branch was only a small subset.

- Everyone talking about this so far has been incredibly homocentric in their
views.  You've got a universe with thousands to millions of races currently
living, not to mention ones that are no longer viable.  Even with some
commonality in mindsets/viewpoints, you still have a vast number of different
languages, modes of expression and mental viewpoints.  Translation between
these has to be a more onerous task then just simply gathering and correlating
the data, especially for non-subjective matter.  A common denomitor language
or mode of expression could be assumed but I don't remember any references to
anything like it.  Mention is always being made about putting more money and
resources into the Earth library, could this simply be into translating more
and more of the existing data into some Earth language(s).

- Who says that the information is all textual???  Surely there are vast
quantities of information that is best stored as visual images, aural patterns,
olfactory signals, sonar images or other senses that could be used by the
different alien races.  Which would be more succinct, a description of the
Mona Lisa painting or a visual image of it??  Although I agree, that ASSUMING
that you could afford it, the technology is surely there to easily store all
of the necessary information, (but then, not all of us are working on a
Sequent with 10 486 CPUs, 100MB RAM and 6GB disk storage =) (including me :-(.

- You must also keep in mind that the Earth races are unique in that they
were not OBVIOUSLY uplifted by a Patron race.  All other races currently
existing were uplifted by a Patron with its own library branch that could
build/create/grant to the Client race a library that could be "having its
shelves stocked" before that race could even begin to be able to use it.
In contrast, the human civilization evolved over the course of thousands
of years and has only had time to build the library for a minute fraction
of that time.

- One more point.  There is a common mindset among the vast majority of the
aliens (and many humans as well) that everything you ever wanted to know
is in the Library.  The humans are constantly being ridiculed for having to
bootstrap themselves technologically, especially now that they have Library
access.  I don't think that any other race would have produced near the same
volume of information as humans did while developing simply because most
took the accepted route of using what was already there rather than waste
time "re-inventing the anti-gravity generator".  Of course, I'm sure that a
lot of that information (that humans discovered/developed) has been
duplicated over and over as well.  Fagin says something to Jacob Demwa about
how amazing it is for humans to be exploring their own sun.  Jacob can't
believe that other known races haven't done the same things themselves rather
than just relying on whatever can be found in the Library.  This points to
a rather wide gap in general attitudes on knowledge and the advancement of it.


Just some things to think about as you discuss this matter.  Comments, anyone?

M.

-- 
Michael Lonski (address mail to: mikel@micros.com) 301-210-8134
Micros Systems, Inc., R&D, 12000 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, MD 20705  

Juggling - the art of consistently dropping thrown objects