From:   
      
   => gemini://siiky.srht.site/philosophy/re-linkrot.gmi   
      Linkrot and Intellectual Stagnation   
      
   > Plato argued (in "Phaedrus", which I apparently haven't   
   > read yet?!) that writing might not be so great:   
   >   
   > SOCRATES: At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a   
   > famous old god, whose name was Theuth; the bird which is   
   > called the Ibis is sacred to him, and he was the inventor   
   > of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and   
   > geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great   
   > discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the   
   > god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt;   
   > and he dwelt in that great city of Upper Egypt which   
   > the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god himself   
   > is called by them Ammon. To him came Theuth and showed   
   > his inventions, desiring that the other Egyptians might   
   > be allowed to have the benefit of them; he enumerated   
   > them, and Thamus enquired about their several uses, and   
   > praised some of them and censured others, as he approved   
   > or disapproved of them. It would take a long time to   
   > repeat all that Thamus said to Theuth in praise or blame   
   > of the various arts. But when they came to letters, This,   
   > said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them   
   > better memories; it is a specific both for the memory   
   > and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth,   
   > the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best   
   > judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions   
   > to the users of them. And in this instance, you who are   
   > the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own   
   > children have been led to attribute to them a quality which   
   > they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create   
   > forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not   
   > use their memories; they will trust to the external written   
   > characters and not remember of themselves. The specific   
   > which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but   
   > to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth,   
   > but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers   
   > of many things and will have learned nothing; they will   
   > appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing;   
   > they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom   
   > without the reality.   
      
   --   
   Oh, for the love of signature silliness....   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)