Serendipity : the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for; http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/serendipity
I've been thinking about serendipity. Mostly, about whether serendipity can survive the age of search engines. Don't get me wrong - there is power in being able to find something when you seek it. There is nothing more frustrating than knowing something is out there and not being able to find it. But how do you find something you don't know exists?
At least since the practice of open stacks became available, individuals have been able to randomly walk into the stacks and pull any book off the shelf. For past generations this was allowed them to learn beyond a specialize domain. In some sense, it created the continual learning associated with being educated. You could find almost anything and potentially draw influence from something unrelated.
Paper - because it is not easily queried to the word, lends itself to serendipity. A book is pulled from a shelf cracked and assessed - a magazine's contents are scanned. Something unexpected, but interesting enters into an unintended audience with unintended wonderful consequences: something new is created. Some new perspective is gained. Innovation takes place.
How do you preserve serendipity when content is recorded in bits? Web surfing - the now dead practice of following links between sites, is almost extinct. With the rise of search engines it is far easier to look for something and trust the search engine tuners.
It is inevitable; we are moving from the bulk of paper to the access of electrons. The mass of information being produced would overwhelm any attempt to store it in paper. We have more available, but it is better? Are people able to learn from the random? Are there still meaningful joyous surprises happening? How do you preserve serendipity?
