This is a
collection of lectures and articles originally published in1938 by H.G. Wells,
an author best known for his science fiction work, such as The War of the Worlds, and The
Time Machine. While it might seem strange to select such and old book, many
of the ideas in this short book could be related to the Internet of today. Long
before Jimmy Wales envisioned Wikipedia, H. G. Wells moved beyond his earlier
sci-fi work using the lecture circuit to promote his progressive ideas about a world
encyclopedia.
This long-out-of-print
book would not have hit my radar had it not been mentioned in the title of Google and the World Brain, a movie
featured in the 2013 Milwaukee Film Festival. More about the movie will be
discussed in a future blog post. Turning to the web, I was able to locate
several versions of the book.
Regardless
if one thinks Wells was radical or enlightened, his predictions take on an
eerie tone read today via the Internet. One sentence from the book is often
quoted. Substituting laptop in the place of the word projector and the sentence
makes an excellent preview to Wells’ many predictions:
“The time
is close at hand when any student, in any part of the world, will be able to sit
with his projector in his own study at his or her convenience to examine any
book, any document, in an exact replica” (Wells, 54).
The theme
of available access to knowledge is echoed throughout the collection. These
concepts are important to me being a dyslexic student. For me, reading will
always be a struggle. Fortunately, many of these ideas are no longer science
fiction.
Digital Links
Wells, H. G. World brain. Garden City, N.Y.:
Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1938. PDF file.
Wells, H. G. World brain. Garden City, N.Y.:
Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1938. Digital file.
Hardcopy (Out-of-print)
Wells, H. G. World brain. Garden City, N.Y.:
Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1938. Print.
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