I spent part of today rearranging my office. The problem, which I know is not unique to me, is that I have lots and lots of books.
So I needed to put in new bookshelves. A very pre-internet sort of problem to have.
On the one hand it was difficult work — moving around boxes of stuff and piles of books. On the other hand, it made me feel very connected to the space and to the things within it.
As we all go more and more virtual, these problems will gradually go away. Books may become thought of as a quaint artifact of another age, the way we now look at steam engine locomotives.
But that sense of physical engagement, the investment of your own body into the process, will have been lost. I suspect that after that has happened, when accumulated knowledge no longer has a physical aspect, people will not realize what they are missing.