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> From a historical precedent standpoint, this is akin to the burning of the library of Alexandria

Are you referring to the burning of the Serapeum in AD 391 or the warehouse fires in 48 BC?

Is there a difference with regard to the metaphor?

Depends on the point being made about “historical precedent” and the lessons to be drawn from such.

Also, helps to clarify what exactly the commenter was referring to and possibly help distinguish the centuries-spanning decline of the Library of Alexandria from the violent fate of the Serapeum.

My take was generally: the loss of Alexandria's collection represents a calamitous loss to our collective culture.

(But my knowledge of Alexandria extends only to episodes of "COSMOS" and "Connections").

It's a fair point. I honed in on "the burning of" (original comment) versus more generally thinking in terms of "the loss of", because parent context here is "AI companies destroy…".

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