Back in my day, if we wanted and article we had to trudge to the library, in the snow, uphill both ways, dodging saber-toothed cats and horse-drawn buggies. We then had to decipher the inscrutable code of the Dewey decimal system to find what we were looking for, and then - only after we had passed all these trials- we would be able to consult the oracle of the microfilm reader.

In my parent's day it was even worse- they had to consult the tribe elder and pay him with rabbit pelts so he would tell them the location of the cave where they could find the information they sought painted on it's rock walls.

I found this gem on microfilm (probably around 1999), after hours of searching: https://www.nature.com/articles/058367a0.pdf - the first published 'scientific' speculation on the existence of anti-matter in 1898... with the wonderful line "Astronomy, the oldest and yet most juvenile of sciences, may still have some surprises in store."

I found that article at the Brookhaven National Lab library (I wonder if it still exists?) when I was a graduate student preparing a talk on exotic atoms and how they could be used to test fundamental physics... Science journals were still in the process of transitioning to on-line... This would have been around the time of the proto-zone- when we were all still arguing on the old MSNBC science board...

Back then if you wanted to share a funny cat picture, you had to take the picture (on FILM!!!), get it developed, caption it by hand (no photo-shop), then carefully put it in an envelope and take it to the post office and mail it directly to it's intended recipient. (Jody's business model for mass distribution of nauseating cat pictures would have been completely unworkable back then)...

I suspect the ability to sit comfortably on your sofa and browse nearly every scientific journal in publication, and search it for keywords is probably the most valuable development in science since the invention of the printing press.

The kids these days will never know what its like to not have the accumulated knowledge of humanity at their fingertips- sadly, they use it to find out who Ariana Grande is dating this week.