It is permanent.
Not so the e-book or the CD-ROM. Both are dependent on devices
(readers or drives, respectively). Both are technology-
specific and format-specific. Changes in technology - both in
hardware and in software - are liable to render many e-books
unreadable. And portability is hampered by battery life,
lighting conditions, or the availability of appropriate
infrastructure (e.g., of electricity).
II. The Constant Content Revolution
Every generation applies the same age-old principles to new
"content-containers". Every such transmutation yields a great
surge in the creation of content and its dissemination. The
incunabula (the first printed books) made knowledge accessible
(sometimes in the vernacular) to scholars and laymen alike and
liberated books from the scriptoria and "libraries" of
monasteries. The printing press technology shattered the
content monopoly. In 50 years (1450-1500), the number of books
in Europe surged from a few thousand to more than 9 million!
And, as McLuhan has noted, it shifted the emphasis from the
oral mode of content distribution (i.
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