sylvar

Arthur C. Clarke, of blessed memory, predicted a world in which people would have classes over satellite communications—only he pictured it being over the television. What he could never have predicted was the way in which so many media have combined. I was listening to a lecture that was originally recorded who knows where. I was listening on CD as I was driving around. I heard the professor mention a book called Way Up North in Dixie about the possibility that the Southern anthem "Dixie" was actually written by a couple of African Americans living in Ohio. I used my cell phone to find out over the Internet that that book was available at the DeKalb library system. I then called the library to ask them to hold it for me. It happened to be on the shelf and using an elevator—a regular elevator, not a space elevator, I'm afraid—I went up to the 3rd floor when I got to the library, and picked up my book, and checked it out, and just that fast, within the space of an hour, I heard about a book that had more information and now I've got it right next to me. I love this world.