With so much knowledge at our fingertips, what is there left for our brains to do? Addressing these questions, Simon Winchester explores how humans have attained, stored, and disseminated knowledge. Examining such disciplines as education, journalism, encyclopedia creation, museum curation, photography, and broadcasting, he looks at a whole range of knowledge diffusion—from the cuneiform writings of Babylon to the machine-made genius of artificial intelligence, by way of Gutenberg, Google, and Wikipedia to the huge Victorian assemblage of the Mundanaeum, the collection of everything ever known, currently stored in a damp basement in northern Belgium. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom? And what will the world be like if no one in it is wise?" Winchester has written about information systems before, as in his 1998 book The Professor and the Madman, about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. This isn’t just a rollicking look back; Winchester asks what these systems do to our minds, for good and ill." — Los Angeles Times“...a testament to [Winchester’s] abiding interest in history, human innovation, and his distinctive ability to share his insatiable curiosity with enthusiastic readers..... Winchester’s sheer joy in imparting what he learns is evident on every page.... [his] ebullient style and countless irresistible anecdotes and strange facts inspire the reader to knowledge for themselves.... Essential reading.” — Booklist, starred review“...erudite and discursive.... In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts.