3 ms·
It's weird that in an era of zero-cost digital availability of practically everything mankind has ever produced we still care about the details of distributing
by quotemstr 7y ago
It's weird that in an era of zero-cost digital availability of practically everything mankind has ever produced we still care about the details of distributing printed-out copies of books.
Digital distribution has zero marginal cost and practically everyone has a device capable of reading the entire archive of humanity. Why do we still care about books per se?
- perseaamericana 7y agoFirst of all, if you look up Ebook library licensing fee, you'll see the crazy clusterfuck of ridiculous charges, so it's no where near "zero marginal cost". It should be, but it isn't. Secondly, speaking as someone who is fully on-board on ebooks, for some books, such as large reference books, design/photography books and children books, physical books are still the way to go. Plus extended reading on a tiny mobile phone is not feasible for many people, and not everyone can afford a large screen device for reading.
- timwaagh 7y agoBecause of tradition and nostalgia. Also i find the experience slightly better. But you are right: we don't need libraries anymore. We might need bookstores for nostalgic rich people who can still afford the space for a personal library.
- rhinoceraptor 7y agoIt's a lot harder to focus on reading a book when you can just jump over to youtube instead.