You and me were never meant to be part of the future
October 19, 2010
"Will physical books be gone in five years?" asks Cody Combs @ CNN ,October 18, 2010??
"The physical medium cannot be distributed to enough people. When you go to Africa, half a million people want books ... you can't send the physical thing."
says "Reliable Sources," author Nicholas Negroponte. Because how will Africans get their Stieg Larsson novels? How? HOW?
Relax, Cody. As any fule kno:
- Oil will have run out by 2016 and we will be consumed by Mad Max style petrol wars. Or;
- The ice caps will have melted by then and it will be like Waterworld. Bad news if you don't have webbed toes. Or;
- We'll all be fucked according the Mayan calendar. Or;
- We will be living in a domed city where mankind's sole pursuit is pleasure. Yay! Or;
- Every book that now exists and is traded on Amazon secondhand will... still be traded on Amazon secondhand but with the tag "slightly worn." Or sold at "secondhand stores" much cheaper than the ebook. Or;
- Even more horribly: the .epub DRM will have been cracked (oh... shit) and people will beam novels directly to each other's cerebral cortex. Or:
- The planet will be ruled by apes. NB Primate empires could involve an alternate timeline, which would be subject to tax in some areas. (i.e. New Zealand.)