#2 Blog: "On the Internet"- 1st Chapter

Dreyfus begins his book "On the Internet" by presenting his readers with the comparison between the age of the library and present day technology, the World Wide Web. Before diving into the complexities and results of the creation of the Internet, Dreyfus investigates the "Contrast between the old library culture and the new kind of libraries made possible by hyperlinks." The creation of the WWW allowed people to access millions of pages of information at the click of a mouse in their own homes. No longer are trips to the local libraries necessary. The card catalogue has most definitely become a thing of the past being replaced by hyperlinks. Hyperlinks not only make searching for information much faster but a personal process, no longer requiring the aid of a librarian. However Dreyfus also writes about the disadvantages of the Internet. One main problem is the fact that search engines find materials with even weak associations to the subject matter, resulting in an enormous amount of unusable information. All info on the WWW is on the same level, which is drastically different from the hierarchy of materials which can be obtained by using a library. Deciding what information is relevant to the topic has become a personal responsibility.

Dreyfus also addresses scientists like Douglas Lenat's research and work to create electronic solution to the issue of determining relevant information on the Internet. Lenat's CYC model was a breakthrough Artificial Intelligence technology which attempted to store and use basic human "commonsense knowledge" needed to pick out material related to a certain topic. However, in the end, Lenat failed to create a robot with reasoning abilities similar to humans. Eventually scientists realized that it was completely impossible to replicate the idea of embodiment in an electronic device. As humans with a physical and psychological body we not only of our bodies internal workings, but also possess the natural human instinct and innate knowledge. This characteristic is irreplaceable and cannot be man made even with the complicated and impressive technology which has become available.

Overall the age of the library is quickly dying as the human race passes into an electronically advanced age. This transformation is irreversible, and therefore people must adjust themselves to utilize these technologies like the World Wide Web. New skills must be learned, and search engines must be updated and reconfigured in order to make searches more successful. The fact that only 30% of web pages uploaded from a search will be relevant to the topic is completely unacceptable and impractical. Making web searches more effective should become the main focus of scientists and inventors in order to better cater to the human race.