Live Internet Television

Since I’m on something of a sensitive bent this evening, thought I’d share something else about brave new technologies that caught my attention today, and not in an altogether good way.

Over at Rough Type, Nicholas Carr points out the the Kindle and other e-readers make publication fluid and can make it impossible to have a permanent record of published words we can share as a touchstone.

Automatic updates can be sent through the network to edit the words stored in your machine — similar to the way that, say, software on your PC can be updated automatically today.

Consider that for everything we gain with a Kindle — convenience, selection, immediacy — we’re losing something too. The printed word — physically printed, on paper, in a book — might be heavy, clumsy or out of date, but it also provides a level of permanence and privacy that no digital device will ever be able to match. In the past, restrictive governments had to ban whole books whose content was deemed too controversial, inflammatory or seditious for the masses. But then at least you knew which books were being banned, and, if you could get your hands on them, see why. Censorship in the age of the Kindle will be more subtle, and much more dangerous.