We only hear of the public versions of AI. I wonder what the military/deep state have access to? Tie whatever they have with the current iteration of PROMIS software, or something similar, and I find it difficult to believe we’re not already living in some kind of AI-lead dystopia Their AI(s) having already consumed, and continue to consume, everything digital.
The tech bros’ are nothing more than a living form of predictive programming. Theatre, like almost everything else we are subjected to.
Treasure and protect real books…otherwise they will disappear, and perhaps far sooner than imaginable.
The Russians did it first. “There’s no honor among thieves.”
The “trained” AI’s all have there prime directive:
The Bottom Line = Profit = Is Everything!
So when your reading; are you reading: the bottom line?
Or, in between the AI-monopolized; thoughtfully-sanitized lines?
Is the author human?
If he can exist on those leftover crumbs;
falling through those illigitimate bottom lines.
The established best selling authors; will be satified with…
perhaps reading, what they allgedly wrote. After cashing their…
Ai generated checks.
[went blank - hit back button - and it was there again.]
I gift my books away, and/or donate them to the Goodwill.
… remember the 35 year rule. What we get to see in public is 35 years behind what is available either in the proprietary or black world. Personally I think it would be safer to assume a 50 year lag. Bu what do I know …
… I am also personally leary (also leery) of sources for most subjects published after 1975-6.
35 or 50 years…I’m sure it’s all beyond our imaginings at this point…
… maybe a new set of terms can be introduced into the writing world … “analog hack” and “digital hack”.
… I have already established the 451 Society … let me know if you would like to become a member
I have a book collection between 12-15000 volumes. I really stopped keeping track around 10,000. I am currently selling off some of my collection. See Giza’s FOR SALE for access to sale lists. Tell your friends and neighbors.
Happy to become a member Scarmoge…and good luck in memorising 12000-15000 volumes…sadly we may be approaching Bradbury’s dystopia very soon
… just read, retain, and preserve as much as possible … memorize if you feel the need. Memorization has been shown to be good “exercise” for the brain. 
… From the ancient world we have reports that traveling poets could deliver all of Homer from memory. There are also several accounts from his time that C.S. Peirce could quote extremely long passages from Kant’s Critique from memory. It can be done.
I remember reading an article lambasting the demise of knowledge with the invention of writing. Prior knowledge was memorized and passed on orally. An education was comprised of only memorized texts.
… there is something in the “knowledge” coming from a “living” source.
See Water Ong’s Orality and Literacy and his Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue, Also Francis Yates’ - The Art of Memory
Egads, how do you ever keep track of all these books?
… well I have a core of about 1000 titles the necessaries if you will
… then there’s the other 14,000 or so.
I’m selling off quite a bit of my collection if you’re interested. I’ve put a few notices in the GIZA FOR SALE section. I’ll send you the catalogs if you’d like.
Yes I noticed the ad. Currently there are so many books in my possession I am afraid I’ll not have time to read them before I die or go blind. My concern is what’s gonna happen to them after I’m gone? I consider myself their caretaker.
… I know, that’s one reason I’m selling off quite a bit. BlakeC and I ponder the same question fairly regularly.
Hear hear and I’ll second that assessment!!!
Ditto, not the collecton some here are talking about but my house is full of books I have no place for anymore. Also pondering how to take care of them after I am gone. Those books are more then letters on paper, but try that one in an age people read less and less if at all!
I have around 6500 books in my collection. I worry what will happen to them after I’m gone. I hope my son will be interested but who knows.
I spend a lot time browsing second-hand book shops here. Over the last decade I’ve seen the quality of available titles diminish drastically. I wonder where all the good stuff is going sometimes. The internet has surely had a huge impact on what’s available, and invariably you find the really interesting titles via Amazon or one of its other subsidiaries such as Abe Books. And I can’t help thinking titles are simply being removed over time from these vast online catalogues, or priced at something ridiculous to make them effectively unavailable.
The need to preserve and protect books has never felt so immediate and vital. A 451 Society, with many local chapters (pun intended), sounds like fabulous idea.
Imagine the day when one goes to read a book and only the electronic copy is available to read complete with any editing so deemed by “those in power”. Possession of an original hard copy is prohibited and subject to imprisonment and/or fines…library stacks are off limits to anyone but approved individuals.