Over the past few centuries, or even across the history of civilization, monetary currency has evolved; but knowledge has remained as valuable, if not more so (given the proclamation of half-wits as ‘experts’ and prevalence of ‘fake news’).
We should start including in heirlooms libraries of books, with the size and prestige of these collections being used to determine one’s estate.
Of course, jewellery, antiques & money can be thrown into the mix, but they are better off as sidekicks and not the main thing.
Just imagine the satisfaction one gets from saying “I will inherit 10,000 titles from my father”.
Consideration, however, needs to be given to digitalisation trends and how we might pass on knowledge in digital formats, as well as how such inheritance might be taxed (e.g. public service in knowledge creation).
To say that the information economy will excite all of us will emerge to be a massive understatement in 20 years’ time.
No one can read 10,000 books in a lifetime. Nicholas Taleb wrote in Black Swan about Umberto Eco’s famous library of 30,000 books:
…a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.
Parting thought? Nothing beats the gift of knowledge and the blessings which come with it. I wish nothing for you but to be inspired by knowledge and to live a life guided by intellect.
Koh Kang Liang 