If you remember life before the internet, you don’t take its riches for granted. During the two and a half years I spent researching a forthcoming book, I frequently marvelled at the cornucopia of materials available online. I could have written my book, ‘The Fabric of Civilization,’ without those resources, but it would have taken longer and certain factual questions would have gone unanswered. Nowadays, you can check the exact wording of the 1678 London statute regulating the cloth trade without leaving your house.
But the coronavirus pandemic provides a sharp reminder of just how limited those internet riches are. Faced with the threat of a deadly virus, we’re lucky to have substitutes for in-person interactions. But in today’s world of virtual everything, too much knowledge is locked down in shuttered libraries and socially distanced minds. I couldn’t…