Following on from the 'libraries of the future' cartoon below, the library of the closer, foreseeable near-future might well be 'Google Books'.
There was a documentary on BBC Iplayer (it's not on there any more) about Google's quest to scan all the books existing in the world. It focussed on the illegality of Google's venture - they didn't ask the permission of any of the authors - but also on the power it would give Google.
Books are information. Information is power. Not only will Google have all this information about us and our online activity, but they will have direct access to every page of every book in the world. What can they do with all this information? That's not completely clear. The implication is that they might have some evil world-conquering scheme in mind, and even if they don't at the moment, they would certainly have the potential for such domination, and that's scary enough.
Of course we must consider the potential for good in Google's scheme. The idea of having a library of every book ever goes back to Alexandria in 300BC, and it's a noble quest. Maybe Google just want to make the world a better place, a world where as much information as possible is available to everyone. If that is the case, we have nothing to worry about, but we must consider the possibility of our (or our children's) downfall at the hands of a powerful digital monopoly.
In the BBC Horizon documentary, impressive, dreadlocked technology prophet, Jaron Lanier leads the scaremongering, laughing at the ignorance of the old-world fools in charge who don't understand the future that is awaiting them if they don't do something about Google. And it is quite convincing. If the general tendency towards digitalisation continues, you can't help but believe we might all be putting ourselves in quite a vulnerable position by living our lives through the internet and leaving detailed digital crumb trails everywhere we go.
Read more about Google Books here.
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