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With VHS tapes, and DVDs, we watched programs and movies on television screens. Take away the physical media and replace it with files on a computer, and we're
by tjr 15y ago
With VHS tapes, and DVDs, we watched programs and movies on television screens. Take away the physical media and replace it with files on a computer, and we're still watching programs and movies on television screens.
With vinyl records, and cassettes, and compact discs, we listened to music on speaker systems and on headphones. Take away the physical media and replace it with files on a computer, and we're still listening to music on speaker systems and on headphones.
But books? We never consumed books through something analogous to television sets or speakers. We held the actual book in our hands, and read the printed pages with our eyes. Replacing physical books with digital books is, in my opinion, a significantly bigger switch than moving from compact discs to MP3s or from DVDs to MP4s. The entire experience has changed, not just how the content is stored.
- simcop2387 15y agoAlong with that we've gone from needing gigantic buildings to house them to being able to carry them around with you in your pocket. That's also a gigantic change in the experience. It's turned a personal library/study into something for the rich into something that is affordable by at least half the population in the western world if not more.
- estevez 15y agoThere's a 3.5 GB ebook torrent at Pirate Bay. Between Project Gutenberg and places like TPB it's within reach for anyone with an internet connection.
- kruhft 15y agoA while back I, ahem, saw a torrent for over 10G of Math books/textbooks on TPB along with numerous other collections that one would never find outside of exclusive university libraries. The internet has changed everything regarding access to certain classes of information.
- tjr 15y agoSure. And for reasons like that, digital books are a good thing. What I was trying to point out was that the transition isn't as seamless as it is for video and audio media. The transition is happening, and will continue to happen (though I suspect that paper books will continue to be with us, even if in smaller numbers, for a long time).