Not so idle imaginings
Whether desktop or server-based, information will always require a human component in a human world. We are social creatures, for one thing. For another thing, the fact that not everyone can be an expert in everything, necessitates interaction with others who are experts. The question becomes not so much where the information will be stored, but who will access it, how it will be shared, and how we will work together to use it.
I have done a lot of thinking over the years about where technology is going and what it means for us as consumers of information. In the past several months, however, things have begun to get very exciting. I know that librarians sometimes have controversy over offering computer games in the library, but here is what I think: gaming is leading the way into a whole new way of learning and disseminating information.
Learning will become, indeed, is already becoming a collaborative effort. Look at the origins of the Web, for instance, which are in academia and the need to share information efficiently. Look at what we are doing now with online education, and with Wikis. Then look at online gaming and how users of this technology are entering a whole new realm of interaction.
Gaming is graphical, visual, mobile, and is becoming independent of hand controllers as of the advent of Microsoft’s new gaming console, and to some extent with Nintendo’s Wii. Movement of the user’s hands and body controls the interaction with the game, and indeed with hundreds or even thousands of other players’ actions around the world.
Enter the age of the avatar. When you examine the need for human interaction in our society, avatars become the new method of real-time contact. As they become more and more human (dare I hope holographic real-time representations of ourselves?) the ability to interact with a reference librarian in real time with face-to-face-like qualities, to peruse the shelves of a virtual library and hold open a virtual representation of a book will become a reality as well.
It occurred to me last night, as I was lying awake thinking about the implications of technology for physical books, that the reason we do not yet see where digital content is headed vis-a-vis printed content, might be that we have not yet reached a tipping point, believe it or not, in our technological capabilities.
Imagine if you could use technology to not only digitize and search for information, but if that information were meshed with virtual reality in such a way that the printed book became a 3d holographic representation of a book that could be flipped through (which is useful in the extreme and the lack of which is something I regret about digital content), while also having a computer available to help you home in on the content that is most relevant to you? At the same time, you have at your disposal remotely, a reference librarian familiar with using the content you are searching. This reference librarian, even if she is hundreds of miles away, in this scenario, adds a human element both mentally and physically, enriching and helping direct your experience as needed.
There will always be a need for real human interaction, librarians in physical libraries, and a love for paper books in my view of the world; however, when I think about what we are capable of, and how far we have come in so short a span of human history, I can’t help believe that we will see the things I have written about here come to pass. When we stop to examine the technology we have today and its effects on our world, we need to consider that human minds can imagine the solutions to the problems we encounter with our inventions. As long as we have a need to communicate information, we will find more efficient and more comfortable ways to to do it.