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Subject:Re: OT: e-books and heritage From:sinico -at- nbnet -dot- nb -dot- ca (H.Durstling) To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 7 Jan 2000 16:28:34 -0400
Philomena Hoopes wrote ---
"....I'm not willing to trade my groaning bookshelves for technology
that my grandchildren might not be able to use. Nor am I willing to deprive
them of the feeling of continuity gained by reading, for example, the same
well-thumbed poetry book that their mother, grandmother, and
great-great-aunt read...dog-ears, spidery marginal scribbles, yellowing
bookplate and all..." ---
True enough. Yet these considerations may also habour a message of hope.
The digital age which may soon spawn electronic books also presently
enables banks, credit agencies, consumer behaviour researchers and
governmental thought monitors to gather information on citizens in
undreamed of detail. We can only pray that like Stasi files, it gets
gathered in such vast quantities as to become unmanageable and by
technologies the grandchildren will not be able to use. If a few electronic
books become unreadable in the process, well, it's a small price to pay.
There's lots of good stuff left on paper.
