(French National Assembly, 1789)
I. What is a book?
UNESCO's arbitrary and unsubstantiated definition of a "book" is: . Moreover, contrary to popular belief, this is a strictly formal question. Even the latest "innovations" are nothing but ancient wines in sparkling new bottles.
Show scroll log. Our eyes and brains are limited reading decoders. What the eye can perceive and the brain can interpret is limited. Therefore, we need to split the data into cognitively digestible chunks. Scrolling comes in two forms: horizontal and vertical. Papyrus, broadsheet newspapers, and computer screens are three examples of vertical scrolling. That is, from top to bottom or vice versa. E-books, microfilm, parchment, and printed books are examples of left-right scrolling. that is, left-to-right (right-to-left in Semitic).
Audiobooks are far more innovative than e-books in many ways. No visual icons (which all other book types use) or simple scrolling methods. E-books, on the other hand, are reminiscent of the papyrus era. The text cannot be opened anywhere in a series of consecutive pages, and the content appears only on his one page of the (electronic) "sheet". By contrast, parchment was multi-page, easily searchable, and printed on both sides of the sheet. It revolutionized publishing and printed books. All of these advances are being overturned by e-books. Luckily, the e-book retains the parchment innovation: hypertext. Early Judeo-Christian texts (and Roman jurisprudence) were written (and later printed) on parchment and contained numerous intertextual links. The Talmud, for example, consists of a major text (Mishnah) that, on the same page, references numerous interpretations (exegesis) offered by scholars through generations of Jewish learning. Another distinguishing feature of the
is portability (or mobility). Papyrus, parchment, paper or PDA books - all portable. In other words, the replication of the book's message is achieved by conveying it, without loss thereby (i.e., no physical transformation of the message). A book is like a perpetual motion machine. It will not be diminished or altered by spreading its content virally through distribution. Of course, it is physically eroded, but it can be faithfully copied. It is permanent.
Not so the e-book or the CD-ROM. Both are dependent on devices (readers or drives, respectively). Both are technology-specific and format-specific. Changes in technology - both in hardware and in software - are liable to render many e-books unreadable. Portability is also hampered by battery life, lighting conditions, or the availability of adequate infrastructure (such as electricity).
II. The Constant Content Revolution
Each generation applies age-old principles to new 'content containers'. Each such conversion greatly facilitates content creation and distribution. The incunabula (the first printed book) made knowledge (sometimes in local languages) available to scholars and the general public alike, liberating books from monastic writings and "libraries." Press technology has shattered content monopolies.
