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Dec. 11, 2007 The electronic age has given us a veritable soup of information which has made the search for knowledge much more difficult. This is apparent when one observes the younger generation who get most of their information either from the net or from the TV. They seem to be living in an electronic bubble having, besides their lap tops and X-boxes, nothing of value, not even their minds. They are living in an electronic make believe world unconnected with the hard physical facts of life. Information is so backed up on the Internet that we have reached a point where just about any one can (and does) post his of her stuff there. It is hard to tell what is relevant and what is just so much gossip heard on the subway. Just about any one can have a site and with the availability of easy to use editing tools and templates it is now possible to get lured in. If you know something about your subject you can check out the contributors and sample their writing in order to get a rough grasp on whether the site is any good or not if you have the time. If you don’t know much about what you are checking or are pushed for time you can be duped. Books remove this uncertainty as they have to go through an editing process and what is more, they have to be economically viable in order to be published. This is an advantage as the printed word on a piece of paper is less subject to doubt. Or so I thought until a spotted the ads for the new electronic reader the ‘Kindle’. This device not only lets you read as if reading a book regarding heft and text legibility, it is Internet enabled in that it can take stuff from far away data bases. I can see a future where in order to get published no one has to go to the traditional print media. With this new device any one can write a book on his or her PC and have it ready to be read within hours after the final edit. This will not only bring down the quality of writing but also further add to murky content. In order to set matters right I am proposing that we set up a book combine using the Internet in order to buy and sell used books. They will then become a commodity traded on the various exchanges, the buyer having a greater guarantee that he or she is receiving the genuine article information wise rather than the electronically generated stuff. In order to get the ball rolling I am listing some of the stuff from my own library which is now up for sale http://www.geocities.com/manzikertca/Administration/theabes.html
If you check out the net you will see that this is
already in the works with dealers offering to list
other dealers books for a cut in the sales. Used books
are now becoming a commodity that trades across
continents and seas,the hardcopy format giving it its
legitamy. Could we see a future where someone
sidesteps this by requiring all writing for the
internet to first pay a similiar fee, the difference
being that their is no hard copy. Hard to tell how it
will pan out until it actually happens.
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