Previously on Innerwealthspeakers blog, I covered my love of books and absolute rebellion towards the e-book concept. The gist was that the e-book will dominate the printed book and how sad it will be for those of us who love them. That is until someone turns off the electricity.
Electricity powers our ability to read e-books, use cell phone, computers, and any modern invention that somehow fuels our lives. Without it, life comes to a stand still. Remember the movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still?" (version from the 50s) when the aliens shut off all electricity and mayhem ensued?
Electricity is the new gold. Where once governments funded teams of adventurers to find natural resources of wood, water, gold, fertile land and cheap labor, electricity is the new replacement as the "most precious commodity" on earth. Now the solar/wind scientists are racing each other to increase our electrical output.
Reading is the first of skills that you need to function in the electro-literate world. The second is learning new commands and navigation of the electricity-fueld organization of information. Every time I log on to a new web site, I have to learn a new software. AHHH.....it is fueling my resistance to change greater than my natural resistance to change.
The demise of print does not stop with books. Newspapers, magazines, reviews, brochures, flyers, pamphlets, leaflets, treatise, yellow and white phone book pages filled with names, numbers and addresses, are all becoming obsolete. So how do you know you exist?
Can you really count yourself among the citizens as bona fide because you are stored electronically somewhere? Will you be able to vote just because you have a chip in your birth certificate or passport or neck?
Will an electronic profile a server somewhere produce the kind of outburst similar to Steve Martin's in "The Jerk?" While holding the white pages he starts jumping around yelling "I am somebody! I'm in the PHONE BOOK!"
I ponder these questions as I am the last generation that bridges the gap between fully electronic and paper-based for the verification of my existence.
I never battle my kids time spent on the computer as I know they are developing their "electronic literacy" that prepares them for a future of 100% electronically based information of all types.
But as for me, I plan on becoming the dinosaur of my generation, comfortably installed in my little house lined with books that I can read at any time, rain or shine, electric lamp or candlelight and without the need to push a button to create a deeply ingrained joy!
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2 comments:
Oh but I worry about something else. Which is that before the electricity even becomes a factor - you don't really own a book on an e-book. You just own the right to read it for as long as the publisher hasn't changed his/her mind.
See, if you buy a book from a store, you pay your $10 and then it's y.o.u.r.s. Period end. Doesn't matter if the store goes bust or the lights go off. E-books and Kindle? Not so much! To wit Amazon's quietly removing books they thought they had the right to e-send you on your e-book thing, until it wasn't the case and all of a sudden, it was gone from your e-library.
And good luck getting back a refund of any sort.
So I will hold on to my books in hard copy and paperback thank you. I need something to help me power down after I'm done reading the news online in bed anyway!
The argument is logical Laurelle, and excellent. There is, in my opinion, one escape route. You speak about energy and how it impacts us, using electricty as an example. And how energy verifies our existance.
Descarte's most famous quote is "I think, therefore I am".
By being able to think (leaving the quality to one side here), we prove our own existence. Thoughts lead to actions (be they good or bad) which lead to consequences which can be traced back to the thinker.
The power of our thoughts is more important than the medium in which they are processed. By sitting here in the backwaters of France, I can use the electronic medium, no paper involved at all, and convey my thoughts in response to your thoughts. This exchange is far more important than the medium, because it is the thoughts which continue to meander along in any discussions.
Personally, I see a much greater danger in our kids losing the ability to think critically, to reflect, debate and evaluate because society has changed into a consumer oriented society. We consume goods and services and we also consume information piped through the internet and on low quality tv programmes. Learning to think does not solely depend on books or electronic media - it depends on people communicating effectively with each other, person to person, face to face. That, for me, is the greater danger.
Thanks for a thought provoking post.
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