Long before the Web, Lewis Mumford predicted that the explosion of information could “bring about a state of intellectual enervation and depletion hardly to be distinguished from massive ignorance.” Not only would lots of information fail to make us smarter; it would actually make us dumber by overwhelming us. The solution, he thought, was not to be found in technology alone but in “a reassertion of human selectivity and moral-self discipline, leading to continent productivity.” In these days of information incontinence, in order to be part of the solution rather than the problem, I think it is important to remember this.
Jimmy Wales and Dale Hoiberg (editor in chief of the Britannica) debate Encylopediaea.