Books have existed since as early as the twilight of the Roman Empire. Books are sheets of parchments compiled by stringing it together, with each pages containing words that would give enormous amount of information to anyone who is able to decipher the characters. As it was known in the past; someone who is capable of reading and writing is worth more than ten obedient soldiers and almost equal to a king. Educated men in the past wield enormous power because of the valuable knowledge that they have. In Ancient Egypt and China, the world’s two giant civilizations; educated men are so powerful that they could be twice more dangerous than the rulers themselves. Educated scholars have the authority to advice rulers and educate their children, who would then continue their line in a royal dynasty. All these educated men have with them are books, which contain ideas that can either build a paradise or tear the whole world apart.
Imagine a world without books. I bet you could not, for as we borrow the words of an 18th Century ex-slave turned politician-scholar named Frederick Douglass, “to burn books is to burn reason.” If there are no more books, would there be an end to the power of reason in the universe of mankind? Well, that was what the scholars would literally quote when they used scrolls. Therefore, even without books, ideas will flourish and even at a much unprecedented pace than before. I will tell you why.
Our contemporary technology has made almost anything possible. There seems to be a better replacement for good tools or creations of man’s previous brainchild. What could possibly replace books? Based on my imagination, which is then a result of the residue of all the data I have unconsciously accumulated after watching tons of science fiction films or TV shows, I have found an object that might deem books obsolete.
Picture a calculator or any rectangular flat gadget with the similar thickness and composition. There is a button to press in order for the screens to illuminate, just like a laptop monitor or a smart phone. Then an introductory text presentation will be featured on the monitor, presenting the gadget brand much like standard operating systems occurring in playing console games.
What is being shown after that is a bullet form selection of titles. Yes, you guessed it. They are book titles, sorted alphabetically or according to the KB size of each data. For example:
1. Interview of a Vampire then
2. Shogun and
3. 1001 Arabian Nights – enumerated downwards according to the titles you have downloaded from E-book.
This particular gadget functions exactly like books in the past. However, you may not flip on the pages but rather press on the touch sensitive cursor on the bottom side of the text page. There is even a saving data where it will “bookmark” your progress. Perhaps in this distant future, owning this type of academic tool will no longer find libraries necessary or personal bookshelves practical when all you need to do is to go to a station and purchase a data to be installed in your model.