Thoughts about design and technology.

Historic view of the future of media

August 8th, 2008

In 1934, Paul Otlet published the Treaties on Documentation: The Book on the Book where he not only predicts the concept of a computer and the Internet, but more interestingly (to me), he envisions the use of different forms of media.

“These instruments taken as substitute for the book, will in fact become the new book. The most powerful works for the diffusion of human thought.”

While some people view television and certain things on the Internet such as YouTube as a waste of time, and that people should be reading more, I think Otlet was closer to the truth. New media is not a replacement for the book, but just another form of human thought that has the same relevance as any other form of media.

Tags: books, future, internet, personal computer, technology, video

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