Sunday, October 24, 2010

Caring about paper - feathers or live chicken?

On Being Divided While Books Are Sliced

Matt Hayler should read Vernor Vinge's Rainbow's End to appreciate the more dangerous aspects of digitizing everything. Vinge's description of an entire library being put through holographic-imaging wood-chippers is quite sobering. More sobering is the prospect of a world where all information is susceptible to change.

The second thing that occurred to me is that "caring about paper" is an emotional attachment to an inanimate object. The belief that there is some special or spiritual status inherent in printed matter is a fetish (non-sexual, for the most part).

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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