More than a search engine …
Dave was discussing Bill Gates, Microsoft and Encarta, and how the net
evidently made Encarta moot: “Who needs an encyclopedia on a
CD-ROM when you have the Web at your fingertips?”
I can’t comment on Encarta, never having used it, but I can’t think of
anything analogous online to an encyclopedia or a whole range of
reference tools that’s freely available. The wikipedia?
Anyway, Dave’s remark comes perilously close to some made by Sec’y of State Colin Powell
in the fall of 2002: “I told my staff: ‘I no longer have any
encyclopedias, any dictionaries, or any reference materials anywhere in
my office, whatsoever, I don’t
need them. I’ve stopped using all reference materials because you don’t
need it. All you need is a search engine.’
Had the secretary kept his reference materials, might he have appeared at the UN six months later with a vial of white powder?
Update (2/11/04, evening): See Jessica’s thoughtful entry on online sources and reliability.