Bookish Diversions: When the Internet Was Analog

Whole Earth Catalog Online, Tyler Cowen’s AI Book, Paperbacks, Audiobooks, Sam Bankman-Fried’s Accidental Defense of the Humanities

¶ The first internet? It was analog, made up not of silicon and fiber optic cables but of clay tablets and sandal leather. The primary purpose of ancient libraries and archives, according to Ancient Near East scholar Eleanor Robson, “was to provide large datasets” to assist learning and decision-making, especially for kings and priests.

Eventually, the s…