Just reading George Dyson's essay, The Universal Library (scroll down to find it) over at Edge.org.
He makes a wonderful point. Imagine some time well into the future, when all possible books have been written and every one of them is online (though by then the online/not online distinction may seem quaint), findable, and searchable. Now what?
It's a bit of a trick question (not to mention a rigorous extension of the million-monkeys-typing scenario (warning: link to intelligent design proponent)). Because not only are the great books of the future written at this point, but all the mediocre ones, the bad ones, and the totally false ones (which brings to mind John Hodgman). The question of Now What begins to look very, very thorny.
Dyson's conclusion:
Even in the Age of Search, we still need authors to find the meaningful books!
Whew.
