The Inevitable

The reading in The Inevitable for this week is the chapter on Screening (pages 85-108).  As you read the chapter, and especially as you read the author's suggestion for what a day in the future could be like your reaction might be, "no way."   However, recall that the first Apple I-Phone was only introduced ten years ago! ... January 2007.  Can you imagine living without your Smartphone today?   Can you recall or think about how the actions and activities you do today on your Smartphone were done prior to 2007?  Change is inevitable and change is happening at an exponential rate.  

While the future will be very different, we don't yet know where those changes will take us ... whether the author's suggestions will come true or the changes will take us into yet another direction.  

This week's chapter on screening starts with a brief discussion about how physical books changed the world ... and then he spends considerable time examining books versus digital presentation of information.  Kelly, the author, suggests that there are "People of the Book" and "People of the Screen" and that there is a tension between the two.  He talks about the possibility of a "universal library" Where you can "read any article ever written in any newspaper, magazine or journal" and include "a copy of every painting, photograph, film and piece of music produced by all artists, present and past ... and more..

Kelly states, "Truth is, we are in transition, and the clash between the cultures of books and screens occurs within us as individuals we well  If you are an educated modern person, you are conflicted by these two modes."  Are you conflicted between the two?  How/why?  If you are not conflicted, which are you ... a Person of the Book or a Person of the Screen?  Why?  Answer these questions in a Discussion Board.   Use specific information from the Kelly book to explain and support your response.