[1322] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Dead trees and humanities
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU ((Peter Alexander Merel))
Fri Sep 25 15:08:49 1992
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 12:55:48 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: "(Peter Alexander Merel)" <pete@cssc-syd.tansu.com.au>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
news@Think.COM writes:
>No-one expects the printed word to disappear within the next decade or so.
>The question I was trying to raise in my orignal article was: what is the
>intrinsic value added to abstract information by virtue of its being in a
>printed, as opposed to any other form?
Aesthetically:
The heft, the feel, the smell of a book. The convenience. The charm. Perhaps
we can have these back through VR (and more ... Borges style), but there's
something unconvincing about the idea.
Distopically:
There's no relevant physical aspect - CDs and their successors are just as
tough as paper, perhaps tougher. The loss of books so prevalent in literary
distopias (1984, Farenheit 451, Soylent Green, etc.) refers to the elimination
of their message, not their medium.
However, imagine that civilization falls, leaving only cds to record its
passing. Now humans will have to go through the whole grubby cycle of war
and tyranny and death for thousands more years before they develop the
ability to reread those cds. They'll have to make the tools to make the
tools to make the tools ... all over again.
That paper is doomed goes without saying. Pun intended.
--
Internet: pete@cssc-syd.tansu.com.au UUCP: {uunet,mcvax}!munnari!cssc-syd!pete
Snail: 1/18-20 Orion Road, Lane Cove NSW 2066 Australia Phone: +61 2 911 3130
The game is afoot!
