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I bought an encyclopedia

optoutproject.net

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Re: I bought an encyclopedia

#51

Post by jhbadger »

Neywiny wrote: post #14
bawolff wrote: post #11

What a confusing rambly article. I read the entire thing, and I'm still not sure why he bought an encyclopedia. It seems like the stated main reason is so he can talk to his kids about how different sources are written and constructed. A noble goal, but it seems like a paper encyclopedia is pretty incidental to that goal. Quite frankly, it seems like the real reason is the author has nostalgia for his encyclopedia gr…

Agreed. I think at one point I either saw that you could get an offline kindle-esque Wikipedia device or I contemplated what it would take to make one and saw it wouldn't be terrible. If I didn't hallucinate that product I'd expect it to be the better answer. The world changes so rapidly (unless all you need to know is stuff from an old game) that I don't ever consider using printed materials as reference anymore.

Yes, there was at least one physical Wikipedia device (the Wikireader, released in 2009 and discontinued in 2014), but these days a more practical solution is to put an offline Wikipedia app like Kiwix on an old phone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiReader https://kiwix.org

Re: I bought an encyclopedia

#52

Post by bawolff »

jiehong wrote: post #21
bawolff wrote: post #11

What a confusing rambly article. I read the entire thing, and I'm still not sure why he bought an encyclopedia. It seems like the stated main reason is so he can talk to his kids about how different sources are written and constructed. A noble goal, but it seems like a paper encyclopedia is pretty incidental to that goal. Quite frankly, it seems like the real reason is the author has nostalgia for his encyclopedia gr…

I think the last paragraphs say it clearly: Our information literacy project must start somewhere, preferably far enough from the meandering blather of generative systems that when we encounter them, we have the tools under our belt to evaluate their results. And that, ultimately, is why I bought an Encyclopedia.

But at the start of the article he claims his kids are getting information from wikipedia and youtube videos. Neither of which are generative AI (well i guess it depends which youtube video).

So he bought an encyclopedia to prevent his kids from using generative AI even though they weren't using it in the first place? It makes no sense.

Re: I bought an encyclopedia

#53

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

keiferski wrote: post #33
tpoacher wrote: post #5

There's a very implicit assumption in this text that the encyclopedia you buy in 2024 does NOT contain all sorts of AI-generated stuff. Not sure I have that much faith in the world anymore to trust that to be true.

Knowledge of and use of AI tools in non-tech industries is still pretty low. I wouldn’t expect a publisher of encyclopedias to implement AI tools for years.

AI disclaimers already appear in journalism. It's a short leap to the broader traditional publishing world.

Re: I bought an encyclopedia

#54

Post by rambambram »

scandox wrote: post #12
cjk2 wrote: post #9

This article is mostly fluff. There's garbage in encyclopaedias as well and little possibility of finding errata. It also teaches the kids that you should trust one canonical source of information, which is bad. Teach your kids critical thinking instead.

He covers exactly this point you are making.

True. But "he" is a "she".

Re: I bought an encyclopedia

#55

Post by rambambram »

bawolff wrote: post #11

What a confusing rambly article. I read the entire thing, and I'm still not sure why he bought an encyclopedia. It seems like the stated main reason is so he can talk to his kids about how different sources are written and constructed. A noble goal, but it seems like a paper encyclopedia is pretty incidental to that goal. Quite frankly, it seems like the real reason is the author has nostalgia for his encyclopedia gr…

He is a she.

Re: I bought an encyclopedia

#56

Post by westcort »

I did this too. I bought the 2021 version of World Book, specifically. When my kids ask questions, we use the encyclopedia to find the answer. My oldest taught me how to use the subject index. It fits in two milk crates. I find it comforting, as I grew up with a set, too. Except, the set I had growing up was much older.

Re: I bought an encyclopedia

#57

Post by fmajid »

pixelmonkey wrote: post #23

This article reminded me that many years ago I used to make PDF compilations of related Wikipedia articles using some tooling developed by PediaPress, and then read those offline on my laptop or iPad. I recently encountered one such compilation of cryptography & security related articles in my EBooks folder, and noticed the PediaPress metadata on the PDF. Apparently PediaPress is still around, and its tooling is stil…

Try Kiwix. It's an offline reader, you can download the entire English-language Wikipedia, complete with media, in about 100GB. They also have a bunch of other collections like Project Gutenberg. There are also less heavy subsets.

https://kiwix.org/en/

Re: I bought an encyclopedia

#58

Post by 082349872349872 »

fouc wrote: post #50
TGIM wrote: post #42

I recently purchased a Britannica 15th Edition 32 Volume Complete from a yard sale. I'm not a doomsayer so to speak but if the grid ever gets hit with a big enough solar flare, I'll have plenty to read.

Would be nice if the Encyclopedia was detailed enough to be able to re-build the grid ;)

I have a two or three volume encyclopaedia-like work from the XIX that, as far as I can tell, was directed to factory owners. Its articles cover things like roofing that lets in natural light, how best to build private rail spurs into your factory, or even cheap and cheerful ways to provide worker housing in your company town, etc. etc.

Re: I bought an encyclopedia

#59

Post by n3storm »

michaelt wrote: post #40
isolli wrote: post #19

That's my intention too. As soon as we're done moving houses, I will buy the latest print edition of the French Encyclopædia Universalis, from 2012. A childhood memory I have is that my friends who had one at home had a much easier time doing their homework. I had to go to the library, and was never sure to find information on the topic I was looking for, whereas they had everything at their fingertips. (Thinking bac…

> Thinking back, I'm not sure why the library did not have an encyclopedia... Different libraries often have very different collections, depending on the community they're serving. A university library might have 10 copies of the same undergraduate introductory physics textbook, a copy of a few dozen other undergraduate introductory physics textbooks, and a load of more advanced texts in the same area. A community li…

USA is deeply different. Looks like antigeneralizationism. I live in Spain and I lived in Limerick and libraries are mostly similar, both university and municipal ones.

Re: I bought an encyclopedia

#60

Post by hedora »

We got an encyclopedia on craigslist free, and it’s great.

You can order new ones direct from World Book, and they offer steep discounts on ones that are a year or two old.

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