Books smell good but will not last very long

Marco Palombi

Sep 18, 2008 — 2 min read

If you watch this video from the BBC, you will probably agree that books will never be replaced by electronic readers because:

you can rinse a book after accidentally dropping it in the tub
book pages do not reflect light like e-readers do when reading at night in your bed
you do not get mugged for a book, but you could for an e-reader
books smell good

Well, I think books will be replaced by electronic devices pretty soon, sooner than most people think. The point is that it is very hard to imagine a world without books, but it will happen, although the replacement will not be in the form of the current crop of e-readers which have been designed to mimic the book itself. The real replacement will be more like a PC, in a form similar to the current tablet PC running a browser.

Browsers have been around for a little more than 10 years and they have revolutionized how we communicate, adding hyper links and merging text with audio and video. The browser has already replaced newspapers and encyclopedias, it has helped create forums, blogs and social networks.

What we have not figured out yet is how to evolve the book into something that can be read in a browser. The main reason is not technological, although laptops are still expensive, heavy and with short battery life, but it's clear that overtime these problems will be solved. The main reason is the format: we have not yet created a format that renders the book obsolete enhancing it using hyper links, audio and video.

Basically the comparison between supports, paper vs e-reader, is a wrong one. The real comparison should be done between formats; books are essentially static, written a few years before printing them, and with a very short shelf life. The new format will be something not static at all, maybe a collaborative effort, completely integrated with the NET through links, and it will use audios and videos and who knows what else.

The new format will be very hard to be printed on paper, and that's what will make the book, as we know it today, truly obsolete.

What is Life?

This article suggests that the scientific community is far from reaching a consensus. While I concur with the premise that our current paradigm falls short in answering this question, I part ways with the view that we are at the beginning of our journey. In fact, we have developed Geneosophy,

A new conceptual dimension

Today, I was having a conversation with one of the individuals I collaborate with on Geneosophy. As is often the case, I asked him if we haven't collectively lost our minds with Geneosophy. This question arises because when you delve into Geneosophic comprehension, you enter a realm where

The Curse of Meaning in ChatGPT

This is an unusually long post, but also quite interesting in my humble opinion. Given the extraordinary success of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, how should their capabilities be evaluated? Will LLMs eventually replace humans in their jobs, or will they primarily serve as productivity tools, similar to

Manipulation of possibilities

I am currently working on Formal Geneosophy, which deals with the practical applications of Theoretical Geneosophy. I was tempted to describe the tools developed within Formal Geneosophy as the Algebra of Possibilities. However, algebra deals with actualities or the manipulation of numbers and equations. The term "algebra" comes

Read more

What is Life?

A new conceptual dimension

The Curse of Meaning in ChatGPT

Manipulation of possibilities