Before the 15th century, books were for important information: Holy Scripture; recording baptisms, marriages, and deaths; noting important events in a kingdom; great works of literature. As the demand for literature grew, a German printer named Johannes Gutenberg invented a way to print large numbers of pages, leading to cheap books, and ever more widespread literacy.
The printed word reached its apogee in the 19th century, as there were no competing media for entertainment or news. Since the inventions of radio, television, and film, print has lost its exclusive hold on the public. Indeed, there are indications that it is in decline, hastened by the appearance of the Internet.
Personally, I hope it declines faster. I can’t stand paper anymore. Oh, I love books and magazines just fine, and I even love attractive catalogs with beautiful objects in them, though they are overstuffing our mailbox these days. What I don’t like are the transient papers: bills, receipts, reports, pickup stubs…all the printed effluvia of modern-day life.
The day when print returns to its pre-Gutenberg status as a privileged medium will not come soon enough, as far as I’m concerned. It’s tough to search through paper as easily as the Web, thanks to Google, or your hard drive. We must act now to ensure the revolution does not stall at its present level.
There is much work to be done, fellow paper-deprecators. We must stop our co-workers from printing 500-page manuals, of which they will only read 13 pages. Encourage your financial institutions to send electronic reports instead of paper ones. Stop writing checks and pay bills online. Eliminate paper, and the future is ours!
This rant was precipitated by a small yet daunting mound of papers here on my desk, which I have not gathered the courage to sort through. I am now going to bed, with the mound fully intact.
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I’m getting fed up with bulky newspapers, so full of ads — and whole sections of news — that I don’t care about. It’s a waste.
By the way, I hope you can encourage your co-workers to print the 500-page manual double-sided, at least. If they’d go to 2-up-double sided (4 pages per sheet), that would be even better.
Easy for you to say, buddy.
We’ve got an excellent HP color laser, but I don’t think it prints double-sided.
Jeff, to whom was that directed?
Use all the trees you want; they’ll grow back.
I, for one, like to have a hard copy that I can file away if need be and find when I need it.
I just discovered MS Reader and downloaded a couple of books. It is nice to be able to search the entire text for keywords, but I can’t imagine actually sitting here and reading the book that way.
I like books, and I don’t care about the trees that paper companies grow for pulp. They’re a crop like soybeans or broccoli. I just think it’s wasteful to print so many things you’re not going to read. Like I said, I look foward to when books are the primary form of print once again.
It’s hard to store electronic documents in an accessible format, especially Web pages, but that’s something software companies should work on.
There’s one key issue here:
Broccoli is tasty, trees are not.
Uh, yeah…that’s the heart of the question, all right.
[Summons the men in the white coats for John.]
They were directed at you, Eric. My printing press desperately needs more work, not less!
was it Whitehead who said that since the advent of the printing press, universities had no more justification for existence?