What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?

The truth of what really happened to the dinosaurs has been conjectured and postulated upon for decades by every dino-loving professional and hobbyist. There's the comet theory, the slow elimination theory, the creationist theory, and so many many more. One I read recently was that it was the unexpected arrival of the flower with its odious flaunting of flavours that threw the veggies off of their feed, and as they slowly wasted away, it then left little to be desired for the carnivorous diet - don't worry folks, it was in a fictitious field that I read this. But it brings up an interesting point. What is it about new arrivals that throws us off so quickly? Because it is not just dinosaurs, people are always suspicious at first of things they do not understand. This has been the consistent theme in our readings this week for Digital History.
The advance of the Internet as an historical source has been contested at almost every new development. To the computer-savvy group, it has been a positive change; for those less inclined to the techno-world, it has been for the worst, with constant ever-evolving changes and horrible new developments. Change rarely smells good to those not used to its scent. I have to admit that I am somewhere in the middle. I am of the generation that should know computers, but I don't. I can go through the motions and generally keep afloat, but I never really understand. And I am sure we all know from our humanities background, that we fear what we do not understand. I think the Internet allows history to reach millions of people that would never have been able to before, which is great. Knowledge should not be hoarded. But, I do feel sorry for the old school scholars who are being thrown off their over-used metaphor of an ivory tower and made to go the way of the dinosaur. Can we not have the best of both worlds? And I understand about the "old making way for the new," but don't we lose something valuable in the process? Like dinosaurs? That could have been fun - T-Rex's for the army, pterodactyls for transportation, dino eggs for breakfast...I kid!
Cohen and Rosenzweig say in Promises and Perils of Digital History that "instantaneous access to primary and secondary sources - the ability to very quickly make and test out intellectual connections - will likely alter historical research and writing in ways that we haven't yet imagined." And that's the thing: we do not know the full ramifications of the Internet and blogs and digitised sources. We never do with any kind of new development. I think the lesson that we can take from history (and from the dinos) is that balance is key. Just in case the Internet and computers end up being our asteroid in some Terminator-style future, we need to still try and preserve the original documents and artefacts that are so important to our historical identity.
Don't fear the flower, but be aware that it may cause indigestion.