Do you think the future of books will be electronic tablets and cartridges?

Question

I can imagine book sized tablets that are backlit. You stick the book in as a cartridge. No more paper/cutting down trees.
The possibilities are endless since you can change the text's size/font/color and also have a builtin dictionary

Don't you think they'll need to be in some kind of cartridge (flash card, memory stick whatever etc) so they can be sold in bookstores?
how will the prevent piracy?

Answer 1

Cartridge? Methinks not, when you can already fit a thousand books on a single memory card today!

Electronic tablets? Too heavy and bulky. More likely the "book of the future" will be a thin, light, flexible e-ink device that's convenient to take around and unroll on a bus or train, and weatherproof and resistant to shocks so it can withstand some rough treatment, like a paper book. :)

Answer 2

No. Books are a pretty sturdy technology -- you can drop them and get them wet and leave them in the bottom of your bookbag and they're just fine. They don't disappear when the batteries run out, and you can read them anywhere.

Also, while 1 billion+ people are connected to the Internet, the rest aren't. Even taking into account illiteracy, that leaves billions without access who might want to read something. And even of those billion, a number won't have the money to buy yet another gadget.

Books are also cheap, or free at the library or stolen off friends' shelves. So not a bad deal!

Answer 3

Hmm. Isn't that what we already call ... a computer?

First, such a set-up ignores the fact that much close reading requires a pencil and a real page to take notes on and underline and circle and otherwise mark text. Second, the experience of reading an actual book, like one you hold in your hands and turn the page of and write notes in, will never be replaced by any amount of electronic equipment.

Answer 4

What a horrible thought!!! I love books. I love the smell of libraries. I love sitting under our big maple tree with a good book or reading when I go to bed. Don't worry about cutting down the trees. I live in Oregon. We have plenty of trees and since we have been replanting for years we will always have trees and hopefully always have books!

Answer 5

Cartridge??? What are we gonna return to the early nineties, are we gonna have to blow on them to make them work?

Don't you think with wireless technology we will be able to download them from the internet onto something that I imagine would look like a flexible LCD screen that you could roll up like a newspaper. Others will just listen to books on their Ipod if they don't already.

Since we are talking about the future I think it is safe to assume that even a small vilage in Zimbabwe will have the internet just as they have radio today. Not only that the flexible screens will probably be free to everyone as long as we allow ourselves to read a few ads every few pages.

Answer 6

No.

(Or at least, so I hope.
I like books the way they are, and while I also love nature, I wouldn't want this to change... I don't think the cutting down of trees to print books will endanger the environment either)

Answer 7

Gee I hope not. i like to read all over the place...in the bath, in the backyard, on the bus...who wants to carry all sorts of other stuff around to read? Besides, there is nothing like the smell and feel of a brand new book!

Answer 8

no... when camera was invented, people were afraid that art will disappear - and it didn't happen
when computer was invented people thought books will disappear and CD's - nope... didn't happen...
so I don't think so