TIDBIT: EBOOK READERS ABSORB LESS, AND THE BOOKLESS ...

Well, pursuant to my continuing attempt to sound the warning against the move to all electronic records and books(think, in this respect, of MERS and the Soviet Encyclopedia), there's these two stories:

Book Buzz: Study finds people absorb less on e-readers

Library without books debuts at Florida’s newest college

That pretty much says it all: they want control over information, and digital texts and records, are they way they're going to attempt it.

Posted in

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

11 Comments

  1. Sandygirl on September 5, 2014 at 4:04 pm

    Of course they want ebooks in schools to teach all the children and into college. It’s what this new “common core” method is all about. It then creates a electronic profile for each individual child. Their “Standards” are so impressive – “Higher order thinking skills”. They put a lot of thought in this evil indoctrination propaganda program. It’s downright scary when I use my old fashion thinking skills to see this happen in my lifetime. I read “1984” about 40 years ago in 9th grade. I still remember thinking that could never happen in America, the people wouldn’t let it. To think it happened so fast, really. In 1972, computers were just starting to show up in the work force.



  2. marcos toledo on September 5, 2014 at 12:17 pm

    As I have said before this is our oligarchs way of making sure when they return us to their paradise the Dark Ages. We will never have a chance of a Renaissance this something like a episode of the series Max Headroom where a black woman was being hunted down by the police because she new how to operate and use a printing press. Braking the corporate monopoly of knowledge in that world. I am sure your familiar to what happen to the e-book version of 1984 it was erased for copyright infringement from the kindles and nooks even though it was already bought and paid. Then there was the case of the man who went to a conference in Singapore and uploaded some books to his e-reader but when got there he was prevented from reading them because they weren’t registered there so he blocked from reading them.



    • Robert Barricklow on September 5, 2014 at 2:47 pm

      And to top it off they’ll probably rewrite it under the radar: a corporate digitized viewpoint, replacing any pesky analogue truths. And, at certain en masse times; the rewrite will be done by a sophisticated, highly-vetted, algorithm bot.



  3. Robert Barricklow on September 5, 2014 at 10:06 am

    My sentiments exactly.

    And just “who” do “they” think? they’re foolin’?
    You need the hard copy.
    There are several books out now on how the digital reader is “different” than the analogue one. The key difference being a slow meticulous method; at times requiring “deep thought”. Now, supposedly “they” are developing “deep thought” algorithms.
    Even in special forces training your thought to scan from right to left(to avoid the quick inherent western reading of right to left).



  4. Neru on September 5, 2014 at 9:31 am

    I don’t doubt one absorbs less on ebook but it may be temporary easier to buy an ebook and wait for the hardcopy to come out and buy that one aswell.

    Today I finally receeved my book Thrice Great Hermetica and the Janus Age. It is simply to costly to import directly from publisher even if you can get it 3 months earlyer. Anyway I got tired to shell out 75USD for post and packaging and another 25€ for customs. Thats a lot of money!!!



  5. Lost on September 5, 2014 at 9:20 am

    The problem with ereaders remains that it’s hard to flip thru them, one or two or five pages back or forward is easy enough.

    But chapter 7, back to chapter 3, and then to the index at the end, and then to one of the references there is difficult.

    As for fiction, I’d posit there’s more flipping around than is admitted, and that’s easier with the paper book in hand. Even just flipping back, if you’re paying attention, to check some plot inconsistency.



  6. kevinxs56 on September 5, 2014 at 8:17 am

    I wonder if there is a connection between the bookless Library concept and what they are proposing in this article… turning libraries into maker spaces.

    Why Your Library May Soon Have Laser Cutters and 3-D Printers

    http://www.wired.com/2014/09/makerspace/?mbid=social_fb



    • Lost on September 5, 2014 at 9:16 am

      Wired usually is full of delusions about how future tech will work.

      They’ll promote the very impressisve Musk (SpaceX) rockets, but then pretend that rockets are the future.

      No, reason libraries shouldn’t also have 3D printers to rent time on. Libraries are places people go to use computers, and libraries had a lot to do with developing better search engines.

      Ever read micro film spools, those are a pain, well now libraries are starting to have fully digital microfilm readers–a vast improvement, but it’s still reading.

      Ironically the Wired article completely notes the usefulness of libraries at the end:

      “You have to give the librarians credit. Stereotype says they’re fusty, but the reality is absolutely the opposite. Over and over they’ve adapted to new information tools, from microfiche to CD-ROMs to the Internet. Now this—possibly the best example I’ve seen of how a storied institution embraces change.”

      I’d go further: Librarians drove some of this, so not “adapted to”. A PhD in library science is not a minor degree and serious colleges and universities pay the head of the library very well.



  7. loisg on September 5, 2014 at 8:01 am

    There is a opinion piece on talk2action.org by Rob Boston entitled Censorship Challenge about how the religious right has been attempting to ban books in public libraries for years. It would be easier to accomplish by going digital, as you suggest, but what about the ability to alter the very contents of the books they do allow, which you’ve spoken about previously.



Help the Community Grow

Please understand a donation is a gift and does not confer membership or license to audiobooks. To become a paid member, visit member registration.

Upcoming Events