I love stuff like this. Only problem is I think we're abandoning our other senses like touch, and memory.
When you buy a book you enjoy and put it on the shelf, and then look at it it just conjures up a memory of where you were when you bought it, what the circumstances were. When you open it, you can smell the paper, the ink, see parts that you may have underlined. One of my favorite things about used bookstores are these personal artifacts that often get left in books. Handwritten notes in the margins, dried flowers for bookmarks, or a grocery store receipt from 30 years ago in a different state. All of this stuff is lost if we move towards a literally all digital world.
Of course, I have already made the transition from nerdy record and cd-collector to all mp3, and my iPod is usually attached to my head most of the day, but there is definitely something we lose when we get rid of the tactile experience. Also as a skilled graphic artist I wonder what the future of graphics and "publishing" will be. For example album artwork and linear notes are a dead art form now.
ST: TNG is a good example of where we're going. And while I love that "future", everything in that world is sterile and clean and there is no sense that real people live their lives in those environments.
But we're going that way no matter what, so might as well enjoy the ride.
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