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Umberto Eco on Paper vs. Electronic Memory
joabj writes "Paper was itself a technology at one point, this essay
from Umberto Eco, author of "In The Name of the Rose," reminds us. Eco holds forth on the differences between paper and electronic memory. He doesn't come out in favor of either, rather he talks about the advantages each has, in technical terms. Some fascinating ideas here...."
You may think me a tired, old, cynic. I'd have to disagree about the tired bit.
I am, of course, printing this sucker out before I read it.
In Umberto's case, the best argument against paper is that you won't accidentally poison yourself turning the pages of an electronic document.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
20 (or so) years ago, the domesday project did the same thing - recorded to a laserdisk, and intended to be a resource of all things at that time. For the time, it was pretty fantastic - schools up and down the country took part, videos were made, maps, testaments from people of all walks of life.
There is now a project to try and resurrect the domesday project, because no technology available can read it.
The problem is, it wasn't a videogame. If they'd included a few side-scrolling shooters, there'd be a dozen emulators available for it.
Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
Yeah. I even print out my binaries.
> what about all the data that is lost forever because there is simply not enough paper to record it on
I have discovered a truly marvelous solution to this problem that this margin is too narrow to contain.