[ExI] we stand on the shoulders of giants

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of deimtee
> ...
> > 
> >We stand on the shoulders of giants, and most of the time we 
> don't even realize it...spike

> Jumping straight to iron would be tough... 
> Does anybody know anything about tanning leather using 
> natural resources?... -David

Everything that has been posted on this topic goes towards my point, which
is a that huge amount of the human knowledge base is externalized.  This is
true to such an extent that if our access to our external knowledge base
were to be disrupted or removed, basic survival itself is far from assured.

For most of human history, we externalized our knowledge base through
stories: the elders recited history.  In that loose sense, our language was
the means of externalizing memes.  With the advent of writing, the process
of storing memes became a quantum leap more efficient.  

Now we are seeing the results of the third great leap forward with
electronic storage and retrieval.  The internet provides a means of external
storage of memes so vastly more efficient than books that it's invention is
perhaps a greater enabler than writing or printing.

spike