Will the Book Survive?

This is the question Knute Berger asks on the great Crosscut.

From the story...

The search for knowledge and entertainment doesn't mean that the Elliott Bays won't have their struggles, or that newspapers won't fold or feel the pinch of changed business models. But to me, the idea that the book itself will go away entirely is absurd, and hardly something to wish for. For one thing, even if every publisher abandoned ink-on-paper tomorrow, the antiquarian trade would continue. A thousand years from now books will still be exchanged and treated with the rarity of Babylonian cuneiform cones.

History shows us that many "dated" technologies are, in fact, durable. Look at Seattle. Our 21st century progressive urban policies focus on building trolley and streetcar lines, promoting bikes and walking, and buying food from local farmers. We have cops on horses still, and are looking for ways to re-establish the old Mosquito fleet of passenger ferries.

Printed books might become more specialized, they might change, but there is something in their durable simplicity.