mark pesce

what ever happened to the book:


hypertexts capability of nonlinearity
a link is pregnant with meaning, to pass one by means you're occurring an opportunity cost
attention has been monetized, so links are kept to a minimum
even in Kelly's case, where money means nothing, links are missing
on the other hand, consider an article in wikipedia
many do point back, but plenty that face out
this is a doc that has embraced the nature of the medium
wikipedia does not monetize attention
it's the pure expression of the tension between the momentum of the text of the centrifugal force of the hypertext

the newspaper has been shreaded, from the nature of hypertext

tl;dr = too long, didn't read

attention spans are not shortening, kids will still read mega pages

we've entered an era of hyper competitive development

in truth, we do more reading today than we did 10 years ago.

the shorter the text, the less invested you are in it
discriminate between electronic book and publishing in light
ebook - it's not a one for one translation

if we want to avoid turning living typeset texts into dead text in light, we would end up with less than what we had before
purposefully stripped of their utility to be placed in a new medium

hypertext is intrinsically alluring

what is the bene of the ebook? is it ubiquity? mobility? - those are nice features, but not in themselves overwhelmingly alluring

an ebook offers a qualitatively different experience in the text (ie: britanica vs wikipedia)
does the electronic book differ from the hyper docs?

we won't know what the electronic book looks like until we've had time to play with it
we come to a book with a commitment - we want to finish it, but why

it will become a gradient rather than a boundary

as texts become electronic, as the melt together, meaning multiplies exponentially
every sentence and every word in every sentence can send you flying in almost any direction (like ed)
the tension there will just be one text. and there will only be one text. the reading will be exciting, exhilarating, dizzying,
as our texts become one.. as they become one hyperconnected mass of human connection,  it will become synonymous with culture...all the texts strung together.. and that's what happened to the book


_______________________________________




what's so electronic about an electronic book