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During our discussions regarding the subject of knowledge preservation, a number of questions surfaced and these, in turn, brought forth some dilemmas in which participants in this discussion find themselves. Although not strictly relevant to the topic at hand, this page is included for perusal by our readers, because of the thought-provoking nature of the discussion.

The big problem is what knowledge to keep and what to let go. The medieval church gets a bad rap for lots of things but they sure kept libraries in difficult times. Another problem is keeping the love of knowledge alive in the dark age so that the information will be useful and accessible. Remember the scene in H. G. Wells' The Time Machine when he goes to the far future only to find the library moldered away because the books were not valued? A very sobering thing to think about.
Gus
 
Other aspects we have not touched upon, but which will influence our solutions, are:
We also need to know whether we will be saving information for the intermediate time period only, or whether we should save off information for the long term. I for one feel uncertain about this one. My gut feel, for what it's worth (maybe about 2 pennies?) is that we should plan for a few decades, and only for our own survival and comfort during that time.
Jan
 
This is a dilemma with which I am currently struggling. This dilemma is in regard to technology for the handicapped - well, specifically for the blind, since that's what I know most about. If we are going to sally forth into 4th density in the future, is it worth saving the technology, for example, of how to create Braille? I mean, I take it there won't be any handicapped people in 4th density. And even if, by some stroke of awful misfortune, there are, we'll all be telepathic and use of print material will be obsolete. Then there are the talking computers. I am very fond of reminding my computer that, if it doesn't behave, it won't be joining us in 4th. Anyway, seriously, I believe that we should just plug ahead. After all, we should educate our children; and if people want to preserve more knowledge than might be needed, well, we'll just let them. It can't hurt; and it might help.
Shirley

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