The man who wanted to classify the world
Original title: The man who wanted to classify the world
Duration: 60’
Producer: Sofidoc
Director: Francoise Levie
Scientific field: Human Sciences
Year: 2002/2003
Country: Belgium
Paul Otlet (1868-1944) is considered today as one of the precursors of the Internet.
Already in 1934, he conceived a library with no physical books whose contents could be viewed on a screen.
All his life, this Belgian Utopian cultivated a strange sort of obsession: to classify, encode and unify any kinds of books and documents published in the world. Over the years, he and his staff would fill in 12 million index cards. His classification system is regarded today by historians as similar to the hypertext that enable us to navigate through the computer network. Paul Otlet was among the first to predict that the world would need direct access to any knowledge or subject, gathered in one space. In 1928, he asked Le Corbusier to conceive plans for a World City dedicated to education and knowledge. For this pacifist, it was the only way to fight war and obscurantism.
