The singularity and the library

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to consider what libraries might be used for after machines become smarter than humans.

Design/methodology/approach

The article considers how Vernor Vinge's novel Across Realtime and his essay “The coming technological singularity” inform possible library futures.

Findings

Libraries might become havens for humans left out of the high‐tech future, or museums for defunct technologies, or vanish completely.

Originality/value

The article expands discussion of the library's future beyond the foreseeable.

Citation

Steele, K. (2011), "The singularity and the library", The Bottom Line, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 227-229. https://doi.org/10.1108/08880451111193325