--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "gsp.schoo@..." <gsp.schoo@...> wrote:
>
> Okay. The Internet will not exist forever. It has changed, or rather its form has already changed several times over. Computers on desks are already passing, though I write to you from one now. But the contrasting argument that books will preserve information is limited as well though the end product may seem more durable.
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> Each medium affects how we think of them- or rather how we percieve information and preserve it. Or that it should be preserved. One of the drawbacks to history is that we keep repeating it, for instance. Why preserve old losses and hurts if they only lead to repeating them through attempts at redress, for instance. However assuming that history IS a good idea, information on the internet is retained by being stored and renewed in numerous places by people who think it valuable. There IS an ongoing record. It's just that it's ongoing modification is more evident.
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> Our use of media changes not only what we think about the content of any given medium, but also the structure of our minds and therefore the use of the media. The internet will disappear, but I don't think people, those who have been born and raised in the era of the internet, will ever revert to the type of thinking that those of us born and raised during the era of print literacy take for granted. Books will still exist, but the ability to read them the way we have done passes. Energies are and will be exerted elsewhere.
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> I'm sorry Mr. T, but I do grow weary of the constant grumble about the passing of the book (not just your grumble) and what is lost. Yes, as a medium it has many advantages. It has also had a good run. The Great Novels have been written. Are more being written today? Would better ones be written in the future if it were retained? I'm inclined to think not. I'm feeling its time to move on.
>
The best novels are very likely yet to be written. The novel has a very short history, after all. On grumbling... I wasn't doing that. I was pointing out that you can't really assume that today's way of doing things electronically will survive, even in the relatively short term. As to where energies will be spent, I have no idea except that people may have to spent a lot more time procuring food. For millennia, it was the main occupation.
One could say that bread has had a good run too... or tables, or beer.
Best,
mrt
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