Dude, Where's my Brain?

A colleague of mine had me read over his research paper before sending it off for publication and within that essay he observed that it is now possible for a person to hold almost the sum of human knowledge in the palm of the hand. These little computer-telephone-camera-whatever devices have indeed allowed modern man to empty his head of any memorization from individual telephone numbers to the location of the nearest beer store. What a boon for mankind! No more to be shackled to such mundane tasks of memorization, but freed to gaze upon the stars (and look down at a little screen to tell you the names of those stars).

Here at True Archives we know the illusion of knowledge is becoming more common than the genuine article, and we wonder what would become of our current generation of internet junkies should the earth endure a repeat session of the great Solar Storm of 1859. Back in those days the giant electromagnetic disruption only knocked out the telegraph systems, but imagine what would happen today? Aside from airplanes falling from the sky and hospitals unable to perform medical care, there would be millions of people unable to upload cute cat videos or post updates on what they had for lunch! Information Scientists would be mortified if such a catastrophe resulted in people actually referring to printed dictionaries, gazetteers, and encyclopedias to get their answers.