I think print.google.com can be an amazing tool for fostering research on ancient texts without compromising the preservation and security of such rare ancient documents. I hope this is the first of many rare texts to be made public and accessible.
Seeing as how Google initially made the entire web more public and accessible, and has done so with much print, it seems likely they will continue as much as possible.
I, for one, would like to see some older books that I have little chance of finding used in a bookstore, or do not wish to pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of owning. Perhaps the next rare book will be the Codex Seraphinianus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus)? I can always hope...
These are the types of things that made me fall in love with Google in the 00's. It makes me happy that Google is continuing its quest to make all historical documents available to everyone.
Now, I know cynics can argue that "This is just Google driving more search traffic!" or "This is Google putting a ton of money into a PR campaign!" In fact, I would be one of those cynics if I didn't believe this is just residue from a kinder, more lofty-goaled Google that was led by Larry and Sergey.
Totally agree I think it is brilliant that Google can spend resources on projects like this, for me it is similar to lofty goals like scanning all printed books on earth so they are digitally searchable, I mean how else would most people discover the long tail of books? Also streetview with covering the entire globe, computer driven cars and investment in wind farms are projects that could really advance humanity.
This is actually fairly historic considering all of the controversy that arose over the translation of the original sea scrolls. Basically almost all of the translators were members of the Catholic church, so when they discovered that the scrolls undermined their faith they just sat on them for 20+ years so no one else was allowed to read them. (With the except of John Marco Allegro, the one non-Catholic who published his work immediately and then went on to use them in his next book as evidence that Jesus was actually a psilocybin mushroom.)
I was hoping they'd be using advanced imaging for text not visible to the naked eye, and was excited to see this paragraph:
"The refined images were shot with a high-tech infrared camera NASA uses for space imaging. It helped uncover sections of the scrolls that have faded over the centuries and became indecipherable"
The (still!) ongoing translation of the dead sea scroll fragments could really benefit from some computational techniques. They're trying to do something akin to gene sequencing manually.
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 14.0 ms ] threadWhere's the official Google announcement?
I, for one, would like to see some older books that I have little chance of finding used in a bookstore, or do not wish to pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of owning. Perhaps the next rare book will be the Codex Seraphinianus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus)? I can always hope...
Now, I know cynics can argue that "This is just Google driving more search traffic!" or "This is Google putting a ton of money into a PR campaign!" In fact, I would be one of those cynics if I didn't believe this is just residue from a kinder, more lofty-goaled Google that was led by Larry and Sergey.
I want the old Google back.
I don't even mind as a shareholder!
How does old Google differ from new Google?
Have they even tried to contact the authors? Don't they and their families deserve some of the royalties?
Has Sonny Bono been told?