John Martin's Library tagged amateurism →  View Popular

Siren Song of the Internet contains a curious omission and a basic
misunderstanding. The omission is part of his defense of the Luddites; the
misunderstanding is about the value of paper and the nature of e-books.

This “wisdom of the crowds” and “hive mind” mentality is a direct assault on
the tradition of individualism in scholarship that has been paramount in Western
societies at least since the Renaissance and, before then, can be seen in the
Church Fathers and the Greek philosophers, among others.

the difference between the print world of scholarly and educational publishing
and the often-anarchic world of the Internet. The
difference is in the authenticity and fixity of the former (that its creator is
reputable and it is what it says it is), the expertise that has given it
credibility, and the scholarly apparatus that makes the recorded knowledge
accessible on the one hand and the lack of authenticity, expertise, and complex
finding aids in the latter.