Whoa...

Everyone, please save your books...just to be safe. Hoard them, lock em' up, hide them in the panic room, anything! :eek: I'm in no mood to read philosophy (or anything for that matter) in Newspeak.

I've heard of this feature available now with e-textbooks where one can customize the language used in sections of one's own personalized version (I'm guessing different phrases used in different editions?). This isn't really altering of material, but it's easy to see how it can lead in degrees to the travesty mentioned above.

I still think you are underestimating the up keep of energy for books. Think about libraries, the lighting and the heating of these spaces to maintain the books or allow for their access, not to mention all the trees that need to be cut down to provide for the shelf space.

This includes book stores/shops and all the upkeep for them to exist which digital medium doesn't require. The equivalent of a million books verses a million pdf files is vastly different. You can probably hold a million pdf files on one server where as a million books being processed and stored takes up far more resources.

I barely read books any more. I do read a lot of e-books and it's great.
Though I would be cautious before changing libraries to some "e learning centers". They would be useless if we don't have electricity or internet?

And I'll bet that the goernment(s) will be more then happy to set up this E-book centers. Call me paranoid, overly cynical or far-right...of which maybe two really fit...but anything a government(s) can control by a flip of the switch is a dangerous proposition..

It's not so much the Government that is to be feared. in capitalist society it's the big information brokers, the "firms", often the great editor houses (like Elsevier) who will control information. Already today they set their own conditions, to take or to leave. Books are not the main issue here, it's vital (scientific) information, the one that means big business, economic information, medical information. Who will control the vital scientific information flow in the future? That battle is raging right now.

I agree 100% with you, I just oversimplified my answer(sorry abou that). Here in the good 'ol U.S. of A it is special interests who own the politicians. It's exactly as Catchabula said- "Books are not the main issue here, it's vital (scientific) information, the one that means big business, economic information, medical information. Who will control the vital scientific information flow in the future? That battle is raging right now." Here is a quote from Thomas Jefferson-"A government big enough to give you everything you want; is big enough to take it all away."

2 points:

Screens on e-readers do not look quite like your computer screen, there is a lot of effort put forth to make the e-reader screen resemble actual pages with matte finish and no back light.

Secondly; Are you aware of the number of sources for .pdf files and ebooks? Even if you destroy every hard drive that has a given .pdf file on, people often make their own .pdfs from hard copies of books. There is no way to keep track of all of the files. I don't think there is any danger of people 'electrocuting the interwebz and makes all books go away!'. Assume the grid goes down totally, no internet, no power. A simple power generator, paper and a pen could be used to recover and number of books from individual readers and computers. If anything, soft storage would make it more difficult to eliminate books.

That being said, I think having several locations for hardcopies of books and papers to be replaced periodically (when they start to rot) is a good idea.

I will never get rid of my books. Books have been around for thousands of years, I'm not about to give them up for electronics but have electronic too, you can't give an electronic book for a present either, well it's not the same.

I agree with Zeretic. I don't fear evil corporations controlling the books we can get.
My only concern was that with e learning centers we create dependencies that we don't have with libraries, mainly electricity, internet, and computer repairs.

Is it a valid concern that there be many variations of books? Say, a sort of "wiki" alteration/adjustment capability goes much abused and unregulated thereby pouring forth a flood of changed versions of books? This is available now with e-textbook companies where one can select certain language preferences and file share these versions.

I don't think the posters concerned with a digital age Farhenheit 451 were worried about as much a total effacement (which yes, is unrealistic) than the essentially same effect through not knowing which is the original (in a situation where no hardcopies were on hand). This effect doesn't even have to progress to such a degree that even nearly approaches completeness. If it happened enough to make people distrustful enough to always refer back to the paperback, wouldn't that reduce the value of e-books next to nil?

I haven't the slightest idea as to how e-books are distributed, so my questions above were not efforts to try to make a point. I was asking honestly if this is something to be anticipated.

Or in a briefer question...is multiplicity of sources good for us in this respect? Or is "centralizing" through the paperback a critical safeguard we took very much for granted?

It's almost a safe feeling for me that so many paper copies are "lost", that their path throughout the world can practically not be traced. As to computers even the most elaborate precautions are answered by ever more effective methods of breaking in, deciphering, controlling for whatever cause or reason. Every computer is an "open book" nowadays. But nobody knows I have that evil paper copy...

I hope they don't get rid of the books completely, it would be good to have a backup. Anything digital cannot be 100% reliable. Besides, books will always be cheaper and more accessible than a computer (unless they are completely gone).