Mountaineering was only ever a hobby because of how dangerous it was and the lack of a payoff (people instead took the valleys wherever possible). People didn't even try to summit the tallest mountains until 19th and 20th century, because it was a waste of resources and the techniques weren't good enough.

Americans spend 81.0% of their retail dollars in brick-and-mortar stores. Does that figure surprise you?

Audiobooks are mostly additive to the publishing market. Even where they replace book volume, its like a format change from VHS to DVD it doesnt shrink the pie.

Barnes and Noble has been expanding the number of locations in recent years.

Some places still only accept cash believe it or not.

There are more brick and mortar stores in my home city than ever in my life. I know people buy things on Amazon but Amazon also kind of sucks for product curation and recommendation these days. The search function is basically broken and you just get recommendations for 15 Chinese clones of the same product for anything you try to search for.

And even what survives today much of it is fragments and are torn and incomplete and has to be carefully handled to avoid further deterioration.

Water is not the only thing that matters. UV is extremely damaging over time. Oxygen is damaging over time. Insects, too can chew apart papyrus.

You are only digging the ones out of the ground that happen to have been kept in careful containers or tombs. You're not going to uproot an old papyrus document that has been buried under 6 feet of earth for 3000 years like a fresh potato. Even the mechanical stress of being shifted and being under pressure around can easily tear it apart and disintegrate it over time.

The Cheshire Cat example is more on target and was amusing to learn about.

What if consolidating AI into a highly regulated cartel, with no chance of upstart competition ruining their position, is the scenario that leads to the worst possible outcome?