[Infowarrior] - Speaking of Books

[Richard Forno]

This classic scene from the original Star Trek episode "Court Martial" came to mind when I read that NYT article earlier.   Worth reposting here to add some colour to tthings.  Techhie that I can be at times, I must confess to siding with Cogley on this one.    -rick


Source:  http://www.tv.com/star-trek/court-martial/episode/24905/trivia.html

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Kirk: What is all this?

Cogley: I figure we'll be spending some time together, so I moved in.

Kirk: I hope I'm not crowding you.

Cogley: What's the matter? Don't you like books?

Kirk: Oh, I like them fine, but a computer takes less space.

Cogley: A computer, huh? I got one of these in my office. Contains all the precedents, a synthesis of all the great legal decisions written throughout time. I never use it.

Kirk: Why not?

Cogley: I've got my own system. Books, young man, books. Thousands of them. If time wasn't so important, I'd show you something--my library. Thousands of books.

Kirk: What would be the point?

Cogley: This is where the law is, not in that homogenized, pasteurized, synthesized... do you want to know the law, the ancient concepts in their own language, learn the intent of the men who wrote them, from Moses to the tribunal of Alpha 3? Books.

Kirk: You have to be either an obsessive crackpot who's escaped from his keeper or Samuel T. Cogley, attorney-at-law.

Cogley: Right on both counts.