Libraries

[phavoc]

To determine how many people can be in there, just use the same rule for passengers couches (2 per DT). So a 4DT library could hold approximately 8 people, but more than likely its really just 5-6 so you have some extra room. Or be more generous and say 1 per DT. Viola.

As for finding stuff... we have effecient search mechanisms today. It's easy to find information. It's hard to find relevant information for what you want. Smarter algorithms will surely help, but you are also going to massively increase the amount of information to be searched.

Here we have 7 contintents, about 130 or so countries, hundreds more subcultures and languages. Now multiple that by thousands of worlds, a much longer history, additional races, etc. I think they'll be in the same boat we are - but they'll be able to sort stuff faster, but still have an issue with relevance. Some things change, some things stay the same.

 

[locarno24]

Here we have 7 contintents, about 130 or so countries, hundreds more subcultures and languages. Now multiple that by thousands of worlds, a much longer history, additional races, etc. I think they'll be in the same boat we are - but they'll be able to sort stuff faster, but still have an issue with relevance. Some things change, some things stay the same.

Agree to an extent with Phavoc; if you provide storage space people will come up with a way to fill it. Plus time and worlds make a big difference.

In some ways, that's the curse of the art connosieur in the Third Imperium.

If we agreed on some vaguely scientific criteria for a 'hundred hollywod films everyone should see at least once', we'd all end up with a more-or-less similar list. Not the same, especially if you wanted to rank them, but similar.

However, we've had about a century of cinema. If you assume there's a genuinely heartstopping, tearjerking, jawdropping epic of some variety every decade - times how long has the third imperium existed, eleven times that, ignoring anything older - times how many worlds equal to or far, far bigger than contemporary Earth?

I strongly suspect, even if you accepted nothing less than 'the best' - however you define it - you could start watching as soon as you were old enough to buy a monitor, spend the rest of your waking life doing it and you'd never have to watch the same thing twice...

Now throw in books, 'tv serials' or equivalents, music.....



I'd be inclined to agree with DFW for useability. The only reason it can cost MCr 4 - unless those books are antiques - is the holotank. Which makes sense to me, as the only reason you need a room for training rather than just reading up on a wireless terminal in your stateroom, the mess, whatever, is because the holotank is big enough to do training simulations of welding, first aid, firearms practice, driving groundcars, etc, etc.

Hence, since the library as a whole is no bigger than a stateroom, I suspect you'd have trouble getting more than two or three people in there at once.

 

[billclo]

I would imagine data storage from around TL 9+ getting silly, along the lines of exabytes of data in data storage media that take the form of diamonds the size of grains of sand.

You could have Library Data spanning the known universe in a single flash drive, accessible from a PADD the size of a mobile phone. Add a psionic interface at TL 14, and that PADD could be the size of a necklace pendant, key fob, unusually large signet ring, earring or nose stud.

One thing to remember is that as space becomes available, methods are created to use all of that space. But you are right, every book known, every song, etc can easily be taken with you. The hard thing then becomes how in the hell do you find all that stuff?

Imagine the size of the index. :shock:

At a sufficiently high TL, it might require a semi-intelligent AI to help you find what you want. Or decent computer programming skills to set up an appropriate search. Think Google search x 1000, without 50 zillion extraneous search results.