♪ (punk rock music) ♪
(Finebros) In this episode, you will not be reacting to a video.
Of course. Of course we're not.
(Finebros) Instead it will be this.
Oh gosh.
There was a tarp there? What?!
How long have those been there?
An encyclopedia? Is that what this is?
I haven't seen these since elementary school.
Why is there so many?
There's more. It just keeps coming.
(laughs)
Fantastic.
(Finebros) Where is she? Where'd she go?
- Oh, there she is! - Hey, guys.
♪ (drum solo) ♪
(Finebros) What is an encyclopedia?
They're sort of like these books
that just have all the information you need
from, like, 20 years ago.
It was Google way back in the day.
I know an episode of Friends where Joey buys the V encyclopedia.
So if I'm looking up Mount Vesuvius...
You look it up, and then you can find a bunch of facts
about whatever you're looking for.
(Finebros) So you knew that these existed?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I had to use a ton of these
to write a two-page report in third grade,
and I thought it was the worst thing.
(Finebros) Do you know any of the brands of encyclopedia,
like the names?
(odd accent) There's the Encyclopædia Britannica.
(Finebros) How have you heard of that before?
Um... ooh, there was an episode of Jimmy Neutron
where Jimmy wanted to buy all of the Encyclopædia Britannica,
but his parents wouldn't let him
'cause they didn't have enough money.
So he built a time machine to go back in time
and make his parents rich
so that he could have the entire set of Encyclopædia Britannica.
(Finebros) So we are gonna have you research something.
(softly) Oh god, no.
Oh man. (chuckling) This is a throwback and a half.
(Finebros) Okay, so we want you to look up
- the chapter on reading. - Okay. Let me find R.
I'm assuming I got to find the R book.
This one? Looks like "World."
Where is the glossary?
Wait. They're going by letters.
(excitedly) Okay, wait. Okay.
This is T.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R...
Okay. After Q.
R! Got it.
R. We're getting somewhere.
R. Now I'm at "Reformation."
Go a little bit forward.
God, there's so much stuff in here.
"Reading."
Hoo!
Um... "read--" I found it!
That was quick-- a lot quicker than I expected it to be.
That was annoying.
I had to go through many pages just to find "reading."
It would've been quicker and less of a hassle to just google it.
(Finebros) Would you want to have a whole encyclopedia set
- in your house? - Probably not.
Ehh, no. It'd take up too much room.
I have Google. I don't need it.
If they were a bit cheaper,
then it'd probably be cool to have it.
Personally, as a historian, it's so interesting to see
what that society thought about the different things
and how that changes.
I would want one, but I would not use them.
I'd bring dates over, and I'd just casually be like,
"Oh, look at this bookshelf." And they'd be like, "Oh, you read?
That's so retro. That's so hot."
I would want to just to show my future kids and their kids' kids,
but I'd probably never open them up.
(Finebros) Okay, so encyclopedias, like many things
because of the internet, has become more and more obsolete
'cause everything's going digital.
And even in the '90s, encyclopedias started getting competition
from something called Encarta.
- Have you heard of Encarta? - No.
Nope.
Is that like Contra?
(Finebros) Encarta and other companies made CD-ROMs
that basically were a digital encyclopedia.
So you'd put in the disc, and you'd have all the information.
Oh, that's good.
(Finebros) But even now, those are pretty much obsolete,
and even the physical encyclopedia is starting to go away.
Oh.
That's crazy.
(Finebros) And so finally, you're one of the last generations
to still have certain things not fully digital.
Books more than likely are gonna go the way of vinyl records
or other medias that have gone fully digital.
So what do you think about a future
where there'll be some teenagers who might never have read
- from an actual book? - Oh god. That hurts.
That's... (sighs)
Shame on humanity.
(chuckling) I can't even comprehend that at all.
That's so sad. I really don't want the world to be like that.
I don't like reading on my iPad or on the computer,
because when you have the book, it's just like,
you're holding it and you're feeling it,
and you have a little character in your hands.
Oh my gosh. Now I'm gonna hoard all the books
so that when my grandchildren are like, "What's that?"
I'll be like, "It's a book."
♪ (upbeat theme music) ♪