Paperbacks vs Ebooks: the age-old debate. Well…If you consider an age to be about ten years long. In a recent tweet, Kriti wondered what societies of the future might think on this question.
The book vs ebook debate… Which do you prefer? Since becoming a bookblogger, my collection of ebooks have grown substantially and now I buy them myself too. But physical books will always have a special place in my heart, partly because authors can sign them. 🙂 https://t.co/gxRvn3GlDV
— Kriti Khare (@_armedwithabook) October 15, 2019
My space opera, the Justice Keepers Saga, features several futuristic societies, one of which specifically answered this question. So, when Kriti asked me to do a guest post, I thought this would be the perfect topic.
First, a little backstory. About ten thousand years ago, give or take a few centuries, an alien race that we know only as the Overseers took primitive humans and scattered them on multiple worlds throughout the galaxy. Why? Well, that’s one of the biggest mysteries in the series; so, I’m going to have to leave that unspoiled. Those of us left behind on Earth were oblivious to everything going on beyond the confines of our solar system. You might say that we were the control group in the grand experiment. Several of those other worlds advanced to the point where they developed space flight, and the series begins when one of those advanced societies discovers Earth.
The three planets that have been sending ships out to explore the galaxy for about three hundred years now are called Leyria, Antaur and Ragnos. At the start of the series, Leyria and its colonies are a union of planets similar to the Federation in Star Trek. Poverty has been eliminated; prejudice is a thing of the past. The ecological devastation of their industrial age has been corrected.
The model that best describes Leyrian society is called a Natural Law Resource Based Economy, a term coined by Jaques Fresco. In short, the Leyrian economy is oriented around two principles: environmental sustainability and providing a high quality of life for all citizens, with access to food, water, medicine and other basic necessities guaranteed as a fundamental human right. Environmental sustainability is key because…and I say this with love…We use too much paper.
We destroy forests for a variety of reasons, including animal agriculture, fossil fuel extraction and logging. Paper production accounts for only a portion of deforestation – I am aware of this – but every little bit counts, and the forests are the lungs of this planet. We must preserve them if we want to survive. A society oriented around sustainability must use less paper, and that is just scientific fact.
Leyrians use a technology called SmartGlass, a thin sheet of reinforced, ballistic-strength glass with micro-circuitry literally constructed inside of it. You can drop it, pound on it, hit it with a sledgehammer, and it won’t break. SmartGlass is constructed by tiny robots that are smaller than skin cells. These robots build the circuit pathways molecule by molecule. SmartGlass comes in various sizes, from sheets small enough to fit on wrist-mounted multi-tools to large screens that take up an entire wall. Most desks are covered in it. Tablets are constructed from it, and you can even find it in some windows such as a pilot’s heads-up-display.
For text-based applications, SmartGlass uses display settings that are designed to minimize glare and eyestrain. When reading a novel, the display would look very much like what you see on a Kindle: black text on a soft, gray background with backlight settings tailored to your environment. Most Leyrians read their books on SmartGlass devices. Once an author releases a book, it’s available to anyone who wants to read it, free of charge.
Physical books still exist on Leyria, as do libraries. In fact, Leyrians have libraries for many commodities, not just books. However, paper books are kept primarily as a hard-copy backup in the unlikely event of a major technological failure. (A natural disaster that damages infrastructure, for instance.) As such, paper-based books and records are treated with the utmost care, kept in pristine condition. Most people don’t read them casually. So, Leyria comes down pretty firmly on the ebook side of the debate.
Now, you might be thinking that the other worlds take a different position, but you’d be wrong. However, while their social and economic philosophies might be radically different, the fact remains that paper as a medium of information exchange is highly inefficient when you’re talking about empires that span several hundred lightyears from end to end.
You may have to transmit information to a ship in deep space, and that ship isn’t going to have the resources to print out large documents on a regular basis. Starships have to use storage space wisely. Much of that space would be devoted to food and tools. And even if they were willing to carry large amounts of paper, they wouldn’t necessarily have opportunities to stop in at the nearest planet and resupply.
Most Ragnosians carry small, hand-held devices called pocket computers. These computers flip open like a book with a screen on one side and input keys on the other. On Ragnos, access to books requires a subscription service. It wouldn’t cost much – around the price of a cup of coffee every month – but nothing on Ragnos is free, and the service you chose would determine which books you could access. Generally, those who could afford it would read their books on pocket computers. Actual paperback books would be much more costly.
Antaur also employs small, hand-held tablets for most text-based applications.
So, Kriti, to answer your question: I very much believe that in the future, e-books and e-readers won’t just be common. They’ll be the primary method of information exchange for all text-based media.
Addendum:
Kriti had some questions about the world building, so I thought I would answer them here at the end of the article.
Do we have anything similar to SmartGlass today?
The closest thing would be this. Though as I understand it, this technology is still in its infancy.
How do authors make a living in this world if books are automatically free?
Leyria is a world without money. So, no one “makes a living” so much as they pursue a fulfilling career. Engineers design new technologies; teachers teach, and doctors save lives all because they love what they do. The same is true for authors. Menial or unpleasant jobs are done by robots. In the series, you’ll often see robots in the background, polishing the floors or cutting the grass. These robots are not sentient; they have no feelings, just complex AI that allows them to do such tasks. We already have similar robots today.
On Leyria, cities grow food locally in vertical farms. Those farms do have human supervisors, but much of the manual work is done by robots. Leyrian cities generate power through a systematic approach that uses solar, wind, tidal, and most importantly geothermal energy in concert. These cities are designed around public transit with efficient subway and bus systems that are supplemented by automated cars.
Honestly, I could go on for hours! But I’ll wrap it up here and say that if you want to learn more, you can read the series!
Couldn’t the libraries also be damaged by a natural disaster?
Of course! But the great thing about libraries is that there’s more than one of them. They are very secure, but there is no such thing as building that is completely impervious to any form of damage.
When it comes to communicating with a distant starship, wouldn’t people use radio and talk to one another?
They do indeed, but not the standard radio that we use here on earth. The limitations of lightspeed would make that very impractical. To communicate over interstellar distances, the Leyrians, Antaurans and Ragnosians all use a device called a SlipGate. There are tens of thousands of them spread across the galaxy, left behind by the Overseers. Some advanced societies have learned how to build their own SlipGates. The Gates are linked together in a vast network. They contact each other by means of a microscopic wormhole, allowing radio signals to pass near instantaneously from one end of the galaxy to the other. Most ships have at least one SlipGate on board. Most cities have several as they also function as a short-distance mass transit system.
Hope you enjoyed this very special post by Rich Penney, author of the Justice Keepers Saga and Desa Kincaid. Please check out Noly’s original post (Never-Ending Debate: Physical vs. Ebooks) about the ebook vs books debate if you are curious to see the compilation of Twitter’s popular opinion!
Q1: What’s your preference: ebooks or physical books?
Q2: I’m fascinated by Justice Keeper Saga. Which books have you read that mention elaborate libraries and technologies related to reading?
– Kriti
Cover Image: From VisualHunt.com
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