[OT] Culture and Empire

[Terry Reedy]

On 1/1/2014 10:01 AM, Amirouche Boubekki wrote:

> I stumbled on Culture and Empire a few days ago and I've been reading
> it since then. I'm not finished yet. It's insigthful, smart and
> provocative. It bridge past, present and future. I will put it in my
> armory *ahem* library between Fundation and The Cathedral and the
> Bazaar until I read Present Shock. This is the book you want, need and
> will read this year if any.

> ---8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<
>
> Chapter 1. Magic Machines
>
>      Far away, in a different place, a civilization called Culture had
> taken seed, and was growing. It owned little except a magic spell
> called Knowledge.
>
> In this chapter, I’ll examine how the Internet is changing our
> society. It’s happening quickly. The most significant changes have
> occurred during just the last 10 years or so. More and more of our
> knowledge about the world and other people is transmitted and stored
> digitally. What we know and who we know are moving out of our minds
> and into databases. These changes scare many people, whereas in fact
> they contain the potential to free us, empowering us to improve
> society in ways that were never before possible.
>
> -----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----
>
> http://cultureandempire.com/

The entire book appears to be free and online with a liberal licence
"Free to share and remix under CC-BY-SA-3.0"
so this is not a commercial ad. I am reading it now.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy