So i attended the talk about the "Googlization of Everything" by Siva Vaidhyanathan, and wanted to comment on an issue which he addressed, and implied that other speakers had also addressed throughout the day. That issue is what exactly will happen to the paper book in the future? I have frequently had this argument with friends at home, and my stance is that the book will decline in popularity to the point that it is only used as a novelty item. It seems that as more an more is loaded onto the internet, that books will inevitably follow the same path music is and become completely digital, with only a few exceptions. "Google book" was an example I would site, but Siva examined the processes behind Google book, and seemed to show how its not as close as we like to think it is to being a universal library. Searches will often bring up obscure texts, and it has yet to come close to the filtration level that an actual librarian can provide. Also having a search engine determine how we find all of our information can be a very dangerous thing, for if it determines a text to be unimportant then it could disappear forever as "result 10,453 out of 50,000". Another interesting point was on how Google forms profiles on its users, and tailors its search results to what it interprets that user is looking for. An easy situation to imagine in which this could be corrupted would be if a user's profile labels him or her as a political extremist one way or another, and then filters results to only include points of view that fit within that political extremism, perhaps preventing that person from branching out. It seems that a universal library is not nearly as easy to compile responsibly as I thought
NO THE BOOK WILL NOT DIE I absolutely refuse to believe it.
I may be in full denial, since I want to go into publishing, but I do really think that the book will stick around. I think that the book's decline is a natural, if not positive, progression. We've got so many other forms of media/entertainment that the book can no longer hold such a large market share, so to speak, but I can't see it fading out entirely. Storytelling and books are too entrenched in our history to be totally abandoned.
More to the point, I don't see how google, or any other technological advance, could replace the book. There are the technical concerns: computer screens are not suited for long-term reading, a regular book will never run out of battery, etc. etc. I use Google book search all the time when I'm writing papers to cut down on research time, but that's only when I'm looking for one passage in a 600-page book. When I read a book in its entirety, it's because I have it in its ink-and-paper form.
Every once in a while, some tech company tries to work out a viable form of e-book, but it never really works out. The amazon kindle has come the closest, but even it hasn't really caught on. At least, I don't think it has - I've never seen one in person, despite amazon's marketing orgy when it was released. Conclusion: the book has faded, but it won't ever go out of style entirely. And if anyone has any proof to the contrary, I really don't want to hear it.
On a side note, Radar published this short story recently about what Google could do RIGHT NOW should it decide to turn into a great force for evil. It's creepy as all hell, but really interesting.
http://www.radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2007/09/google_fiction_evil...
Ironic side note: I used google to find this article.
Yes, the book is an extremely important medium, and I seriously doubt it'll go out of fashion any time soon. Sort of like how email is replacing paper mail - but not entirely. There are a lot of things you can do with a paper book that aren't really feasible with an ebook. Most importantly, reading it anywhere. It's very easy to take a book anywhere, and it's less fragile, doesn't require a battery, and (usually) doesn't weigh that much. Then again, certain backbreakers weigh less than new small laptops.
Funny story about Evil Google, though. There are a lot of interesting thoughts about that sort of thing going on. As I recall, an infamous joke where an eBay auctioneer offered to sell predictions of the future involved Google going to war to try and take over the world. And other suggestions include statistics such as: at its current rate of hiring, Google will employ everyone on Earth by 2040. But we'll see.