In those days, if you wanted to know something but did not own an expensive encyclopedia (or your encyclopedia was no longer sufficiently up-to-date to tell you what you wanted to know), you had to go to a library and spend hours searching for what you needed. To contact friends or colleagues overseas, you had to write them a letter and wait at least two weeks for a reply.
在纸时代，如果你想要了解些什么但又没有昂贵的百科全书（或者你的百科全书已经过时，无法告诉你你想知道的东西），你就必须跑到图书馆，花数小时时间寻找你需要的东西。为了联系海外的朋友和同事，你必须给他们写信，然后至少等待两周时间才能收到回信。越洋电话贵得惊人，而面对面谈话更是科幻小说里才有的内容。