The presentation of the ancient texts we viewed on Tuesday was interesting and also enlightening. It was amazing how texts that were so ancient were preserved, allowing for us to take a peek into the past. This made me wonder, how will our generations ideas be seen in the future. Now that all texts are inevitably going to be digital there will no longer be hard copies. This means that there will most likely be limited or no hard copies for people thousands of the years in the future to view. I am curious if going digital will preserve our ideas like the papyrus or scrolls we viewed. On the other hand, our documents can be erased in a single click so it is possible that some or any of them may not be saved to seen by civilizations in the future.
I think that in the future, when the vast majority of texts become digital, it should become mandatory for every author to publish his or her writing as a book before publishing it digitally. That way, it will be ensured that if the digital copy is somehow destroyed, there will always be a source for people to access the writing.
I agree with Brittany. I think it is so important for our intellectual work to be published on paper before being published electronically. However, I think it is important for other reasons. Personally, I think reading with an electronic copy destroys the true idea of a book. The joy for me in reading a book is flipping through the pages and even the feel of paper and cover. An electronic reader destroys that idea and takes away the individuality of books. However, I think having two forms of publication will further protect the book from being destroyed.
I personally know the fragility of digital information, having my computer hard drive die on me over the summer. Regarding that, I agree that there should be some sort of hard copy version of books to be kept on record, in order to keep the work safe. On the other hand I feel that hard copies should not be phased out for digital copies. On one hand, digital copies can be easy to obtain and distribute, while a hard copy can only exist as itself. There’s also a vast difference in reading a book and reading an e-book. Personally, the feeling of the actual weight of a book is more satisfying than a significantly lighter e-reader with books that can vanish at the touch of a finger.