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Digital won't replace print just as the radio and TV didn't replace print (and interactive didn't replace passive, and print didn't replace the spoken word). Th

by noam87 11y ago

Digital won't replace print just as the radio and TV didn't replace print (and interactive didn't replace passive, and print didn't replace the spoken word). They are wholly different ways to interact with information, each better suited for different tasks. I'm 28 years old, and I buy all my books in print form. There is something about learning from a physical object (with volume, texture, scent) that makes things "click" better. I remember "where", within some textbook I read half a decade ago, some topic is explained. A literal, physical "where": a page, somewhere in the middle of a physical stack of bound paper, which I can touch and feel; I might event remember where I was when I studied the subject; maybe I jotted some note on the margin, maybe I spilled tea on the pages before, giving that "where" its own unique texture and colour, all of which my brain will forever associate with that information. Digital can't do any of that. There is nothing left to improve about the physical book. Of course, if my physical book confuses me, because perhaps it was written by a certain man named Spivak, who does not like to explain what happens in between those little "=" symbols, I can't press on anything and expect it to expand magically and reveal more detail. It's at this point that I will turn to my laptop, and search for more information, maybe even ask a stranger half a world away, or watch an interactive video. My copy of "Calculus on Manifolds" can't do any of that. I also still find that the best way to solve a problem (even a programming problem), is on pen and paper. Physically jotting down an idea beats pressing buttons while staring at an obnoxious, headache-inducing glowing screen any time (which I try to avoid as much as possible, even as a software developer). To me flipping still beats searching and clicking, and pen and paper still beat Google calendar, or whatever todo-app-of-the-week. The best technology is invisible and gets out of the way. We are physical animals, and technology is best when it assists and enhances our physical world, not when it tries to be a shoddy substitute for it.

ktamura 11y ago
I am around your age, and while I _personally_ agree with you, I am also not sure about people that are born now: my friends' kids are playing with iPads and Android tablets (honestly, more iPads) just like I was playing with picture books, and looking at them interact with these digital devices, I have the suspicion that their generation will have a completely different relationship with digital devices for reading and beyond. Of course, they are also given books in print and interact with them as well, but I feel that the verdict is still out there about how that generation will feel about print when they are our age. That's a long-winded way of saying that neither of us is young anymore, and we _might_ be on our way to be less indicative of the future and more reminiscent of the past (Just _maybe_).
- noam87 11y ago
  My hope at least, is that this is a transitory phase. Once AI gets good enough at interpreting voice commands, handwriting, and physical gestures, there will be less and less of a need to interact with the ugly glowing screen. Hopefully with the next generation of sensors, projectors and materials, and AI, the digital will just get out of the way and assist when needed (or seamlessly blend with the physical world). Immersive tech is cool, but invisible tech is even cooler. Wouldn't it be cool if you could manage your AWS instances from a beautiful garden out in the country, using nothing but your voice and some gestures and without having to look at a clunky old laptop (maybe a small notebook-like pad of e-ink, or perhaps an image projected from your watch). Or when James Joyce uses a big word on your physical copy, you can just point at it and hear the definition. Or when writing down notes on your notebook, with pen and paper, your Google watch can instantly recognize an event and set an alarm. That's the future I want to live in. In some ways, that's the world the first technologists envisioned: one in which technology does the dreadful for us, not a world in which we're glued onto a screen consuming ads and producing clickbait 24/7.

by noam87 11y ago

ktamura 11y ago

I am around your age, and while I _personally_ agree with you, I am also not sure about people that are born now: my friends' kids are playing with iPads and Android tablets (honestly, more iPads) just like I was playing with picture books, and looking at them interact with these digital devices, I have the suspicion that their generation will have a completely different relationship with digital devices for reading and beyond. Of course, they are also given books in print and interact with them as well, but I feel that the verdict is still out there about how that generation will feel about print when they are our age. That's a long-winded way of saying that neither of us is young anymore, and we _might_ be on our way to be less indicative of the future and more reminiscent of the past (Just _maybe_).

noam87 11y ago
My hope at least, is that this is a transitory phase. Once AI gets good enough at interpreting voice commands, handwriting, and physical gestures, there will be less and less of a need to interact with the ugly glowing screen. Hopefully with the next generation of sensors, projectors and materials, and AI, the digital will just get out of the way and assist when needed (or seamlessly blend with the physical world). Immersive tech is cool, but invisible tech is even cooler. Wouldn't it be cool if you could manage your AWS instances from a beautiful garden out in the country, using nothing but your voice and some gestures and without having to look at a clunky old laptop (maybe a small notebook-like pad of e-ink, or perhaps an image projected from your watch). Or when James Joyce uses a big word on your physical copy, you can just point at it and hear the definition. Or when writing down notes on your notebook, with pen and paper, your Google watch can instantly recognize an event and set an alarm. That's the future I want to live in. In some ways, that's the world the first technologists envisioned: one in which technology does the dreadful for us, not a world in which we're glued onto a screen consuming ads and producing clickbait 24/7.