rocket, save money! Download the MP3s Doug has linked you to! (On second thoughts, there's something magical about the crackle of stylus on vinyl.)(I enjoy balancing a penny on the tone arm to stop it skipping on those badly scratched records.)

Yeah - nothing like holding a record album in your hands (like a good book), unsheathing the vinyl, and placing it on the turntable.

Depending on how bad the scratch is, I have been known to use several pennies, or perhaps even a quarter or two!

I'll never hold this thing in my hands, however!

"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere."

- Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.

Mr Lewis may or may not be correct, but in future, if paper books are banned in support of these things, I'll be somewhere in the deep wood, hiding my stacks and walking around reading them (although I doubt I could ever memorise a book!) I have a great deal of respect for good actors.

Doug:
The Kendle should have been named The Abomination!!!.

The next generation in our evolution will likely be the direct transmission of information directly into the brain, thus eliminating the interface, or at least moving it into the human being. In other words, embedded chips wired to the brain through neuron direct connections will allow us receive any information without having to read a book, or watch TV.

Alas, the content of the medium will likely also continue to degrade, just check out any teenager who is plugged into a Ipod and ask what are you listening to. Mega garbage, likely as not. And the beat goes on.

I'm sure this has already been discussed, but I love being surrounded by, touching, and smelling physical books. There is something near mystical about holding a book while reading it, and marking it with pen in hand--arguing with the author, highlighting points, cross referencing, noting parallel or contradictory passages in other works. I grew up in a home filled with books and have about 6,000 myself. I can't imagine a home without books in every room, and every nook and cranny....

Also, I think you can speed read, but am not convinced you can speed think. It takes time to synthesize information and it takes time to create imaginary worlds in one's mind. Why give that up for the devil of expediency?

I think human life is not defined by a quantity of information, but by its quality, depth, texture, and relevance. Again, this takes synthesis--not data dumps.

I love the smell of books, bindery, paper, ink.

But I also LOVE the smell of a Kendle. The texture of its case, the look of the type appearing, the gentle warmth it eludes, imaginary or not. Wow!

Direct transmission into the brain to feed info? Naw. That's very 50's. It'll likely be something we have not imagined. Or the little we imagined of it, far greater in its reality. Look at the picture phone. Nothing like we imagined. Far better than we ever thought.

We keep thinking in terms of getting data into the mind. What if, instead, we created a link between the mind and something like an external hard drive. When we needed data, we could get it via a neural link. This would keep the data in an external site, instantaneously accessible to the mind, without trying to pack more and more into the brain. Are we working on that, yet?

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Dark:
We keep thinking in terms of getting data into the mind. What if, instead, we created a link between the mind and something like an external hard drive. When we needed data, we could get it via a neural link. This would keep the data in an external site, instantaneously accessible to the mind, without trying to pack more and more into the brain. Are we working on that, yet?

That is the proper configuration of what I attempted to discribe above. The information is on the web-net and we tap into it just by asking: "Comuter, I need data on...." I would like that world. However, I think the bad would come along with the good. The filter must reside in the individual, to make correct use of the data and to ensure the validity of the sources, etc. We will need a great big Snopes to kill down the false chatter that will try and flood the web-net. Oh well, I won't be here to see it, but I hope you do and enjoy the positives for me, as I stuggle to type anything on this @@#$%^&* keyboard at this stage of life. I need a voice command interface, hey, wasn't that what I started out talking aobut? Hummmm?

quote:

Originally posted by patrask:
The next generation in our evolution will likely be the direct transmission of information directly into the brain, thus eliminating the interface, or at least moving it into the human being. In other words, embedded chips wired to the brain through neuron direct connections will allow us receive any information without having to read a book, or watch TV.

(*sigh*)

They'll never put one of those things in my brain!

My new book for the office is: The Twilight Zone Companion, Second Edition by Marc Scott Zicree. (15th printing)
My new book for the easy chair is: Wine Politics (How governments, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink by Tyler Colman (1st edition)

Strange choice for a teetotaler!

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:
Strange choice for a teetotaler!

She who must be obeyed is the oenophile, I read for self defense.

Be very careful when she says, "Nabu Dah!"

quote:

Originally posted by patrask:
Be very careful when she says, "Nabu Dah!"

What's that you say? Yabba Dabba Do.

Wow, we do digress!
Well, what am I reading?
I picked up "Twice 22" at a going-out-of-business church library sale for a buck. I bought it when it came out, but loaned it out sometime in the '70s and never got it back. So last night I read "A Scent Of Sarsaparilla" and "Dark They Were and Golden Eyed".

I tell you, nobody writes like this!