The Norwegian library with unreadable books | Hacker News Reader

The Norwegian library with unreadable books

bbc.com

56 pointssohkamyung22 comments

"Each tree was still only around 1m (3ft) tall, but one day, when the spruces are more than 20-30 times the size, they will provide the paper for a special collection of books. Everyone there knew they would not live to see that happen, nor would they ever get to read the books."

A couple of stands of Sitka Spruce that I planted around 30 years ago are now well over 20 metres tall, so I suspect they'll be on their third or fourth planting by then.

At least, such ceremonies provide a sense of stability in our world that is due to rapid, uncontrollable (by an average human), and unforeseeable changes.

I wonder how much security they need to protect this from fans who want to read these works and to what efforts they go to ensure no other copies exist (if I somehow gain access to an old laptop of one of these writers, can I recover (part of) the work? If FOIA requests on the email of the library are possible, will they disclose something?)

Peng Shepard wrote an SF story, "The Future Library", based on the real one. But it is a story about an apocalyptic future. It can be read online at tor<dot>com [1]

[1] https://www.tor.com/2021/08/18/the-future-library-peng-sheph...

I like reading about projects that plan for the future :)

I hope at least some of the books just say "hope it was worth the wait" with the rest of the pages blank :)

There is a, likely apocryphal, story I was told by my Norwegian teacher at school claiming that the Norwegian exam one year was to answer in essay form the question "what is laziness?" and that some future famous author (the name varies, hence probably apocryphal) wrote "This is laziness" and handed in his paper, and got top marks. Our teacher stressed that whether or not the story was true, it was the type of stunt that only works once.

I tried this in high school. Got fed up applying for scholarships (had basically decided to go to local state college which would provide full ride and allow commuter living).

500-word prompt: "Describe your thumbprint". I hate that self-descriptive nonsense. I don't want to blather about myself, never really have. Give me a prompt with some practical utility-- at least to the "how would you stop the puppy-kicking crisis in America" questions you'd ask Miss America candidates.

I masked off half my thumb, dipped the other half in ink and smeared it on the page. Half a picture is 500 words.

I spoke with another student at my school who got further with that particular organization, and they were quite a backwards set (basically asking the girl with a 1600 SAT and intent on medical school if she wanted to be a mommy) so I doubt I'd have gotten much further anyway.

  > "Define 'Courage'"
  > "This."

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/why-ask-why/

So it's a time capsule. They should ask GRRM to put The Winds Of Winter in it and watch the world burn.

As is usually the case with concept art, there are a lot of vague nods to what the point of this might be: “exploring deeper time scales from various angles”, “foster longer term thinking”, etc. But you will never get a better explanation than this, because there is no point.

The good news is that participation casts significant doubt on your intellect, so by definition we won’t be missing out on any good books.

Trust Norwegians to do something so profoundly silly.

I predict the collection estimated to continue to 2113 won't survive this decade.

And who will be reading paper books in 100 years? Who will know how to make them from trees? Will those trees survive development?

NO, those questions are interesting or thought-provoking. They are obvious. Nobody, nobody, no are the answers. The world is moving on so fast and so hard, reading may not even be a thing then. You want to imagine something, imagine that.

Where this kind of hostility to an entirely benign project comes from?

Unnecessary attacks like this often stem from an underdeveloped ego and lack of self-esteem. Such people can develop an overly critical mindset because it protects their own ego and helps them feel like they are better. Generalisations (e.g. "Trust Norwegians...") are often involved in criticism that stems from insecurity, since it gives the attack a false veneer of objectivity and obviousness.

And sometimes it stems from a sense of total despair seeing the majority of humanity actively fight for "their right" to continue killing our literal life support system (the very planet upon which we live). Not saying that's what this guy is or is not on about, but from my own personal experience, I know I go off on hostile rants over exactly that. It sometimes feels insulting to read about "the future" when it's clear there may not be a future for much longer unless humanity as a whole pulls it's collective head out of it's collective nether-parts rather soon…

It's understandable to feel angry when you perceive people seeing or prioritizing things differently you. Nevetheless a hostile rant is something you're doing to protect and make yourself feel better.

I'm not sure you've read the article?

Even in 100 years, people hiking through remote wilderness will prefer paper maps that won't run out of charge or have software bugs. Arguably we may find a better synthetic material to print them on, but paper is a damn good solution right now.

Batteries increase in capacity by 5% per year. They will be 1.05^100 = 132 times the capacity of the batteries of today. This does not include increases to energy efficiency, which will possibly be even greater. In other words, smart watch batteries will probably last as long as digital watch batteries do today. By then, smart phones will be about as relevant as a palm pilot.

For someone that is preparing for all eventualities, paper will be preferable to something with months or even years worth of charge.

Given that space shuttles now use a touchscreen it's fair to assume you're wrong. One hundred years will likely bring us a brain interface. You're thinking too small.

https://mashable.com/article/nasa-updates-international-spac...

> Ever since the International Space Station (ISS) welcomed its first residents in November of 2000, there have been printers on board.

> Astronauts use them to print out critical mission information, emergency evacuation procedures and, sometimes, photos from home. According to NASA, they print roughly 1,000 pages a month on two printers; one is installed on the U.S. side of the ISS, the other in the Russian segment.

There are 7 astronauts on the ISS currently, equating to about 5 printouts per person per day.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com