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Digital books wear out faster than physical books
231–240 of 453 posts
Re: Digital books wear out faster than physical books
#232Physical books wear out in decades to centuries, computers break in years to decades. Also digital formats are constantly evolving and backwards compatibility for old formats is removed. Even without publisher/legal issues it's clear that preservation of digital media for even the next 10 years , and especially for the next 100 or 1000, is at risk. But I really wonder why is there no other major service like the Inte…
Check out Arweave. It's not quite as tested as something like BitTorrent but 'perpetual endowments' in theory make data on Arweave persist "forever"
Re: Digital books wear out faster than physical books
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
Either that specific edition is of bad quality or you need to learn how to take care of books better.
But that's kind of the point of the whole "electronic books last longer" argument. You don't have to worry about either of those things with electronic books.
Instead you have to worry about new things, like not regularly backing up your files to new media since hard drive failures and bit rot are real. You may also have DRM, logins, and paywalls to overcome which are total non-issues with paperbacks.
Ultimately, it's a trade off. Assuming that you have a DRM free digital copy of something and that you're remarkably careful about keeping back ups and multi-site/format copies a digital file could easily last 100 years, just like a well cared for paperback could last a hundred years. At that point, the difference between them is how easy it will be to read the contents. For the digital copy you will need a certain type hardware and software which may or may not exist or be easy to obtain in 100 years, but you need nothing at all for the paperback.
I like books, so I think the best bet is both the physical copy and multiple digital copies in various formats. It's not as if we have to chose one or the other, so it's okay that both options come with different strengths and weaknesses.
Re: Digital books wear out faster than physical books
#234Physical books wear out in decades to centuries, computers break in years to decades. Also digital formats are constantly evolving and backwards compatibility for old formats is removed. Even without publisher/legal issues it's clear that preservation of digital media for even the next 10 years , and especially for the next 100 or 1000, is at risk. But I really wonder why is there no other major service like the Inte…
They actually store multiple copies. They even use IPFS to store it over decentralized network. But copyright is the main issue we don't see many services like open library or internet archive. Rest in peace Aaron Swartz
Also remember the man responsible for his death: Stephen Heymann. Lest we forget.
Re: Digital books wear out faster than physical books
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is nonsense. I have almost never seen paperbacks wear out. Obviously it's possible, but even in any of their common failure modes, they are still easily read. I don't know why anyone would argue that saved files are somehow more reliable, it feels not at all genuine
> saved files are somehow more reliable I have a whole set of ebooks I picked up at a less than reputable site in '11. They're all in pristine condition, all perfectly readable. I have books on my Kindle that are older than that (though not by a lot). My 5 year old copy of "Edge of Tomorrow" (The LN "All You Need Is Kill" movie tie-in release) is yellowed and the binding is coming loose due to re-reading. The ebook m…
A physical book goes from pristine to yellowed and loose-leafed. An ebook just completely stops working. The failure modes are completely different
Re: Digital books wear out faster than physical books
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
Either that specific edition is of bad quality or you need to learn how to take care of books better.
But that's kind of the point of the whole "electronic books last longer" argument. You don't have to worry about either of those things with electronic books.
Chuck a ebook on any storage medium and wait 20 years, and odds are the file is unusable, due to the file being incompatible with new software, the storage medium being unusable, bitrot or a number of other factors. Maintenance is required for both physical and digital. Physical requires a relatively dry space and not bending the spine, which anyone's grandma's dog can do. Digital requires backups + regular recovery testing to be guaranteed.
There's plenty to worry about with maintenance of both formats, but for paper most of the investment is upfront. For digital it is an ongoing investment, with the benefit of a pristine copy being maintained.
Re: Digital books wear out faster than physical books
#237Physical books wear out in decades to centuries, computers break in years to decades. Also digital formats are constantly evolving and backwards compatibility for old formats is removed. Even without publisher/legal issues it's clear that preservation of digital media for even the next 10 years , and especially for the next 100 or 1000, is at risk. But I really wonder why is there no other major service like the Inte…
Check out Arweave. It's not quite as tested as something like BitTorrent but 'perpetual endowments' in theory make data on Arweave persist "forever"
Well, nftstorage seems to be free somehow in perpetuity. Something about extra filecoin for those who store the massive 40GB files that can be uploaded there… can someone elaborate on the tokenomics of that?
Re: Digital books wear out faster than physical books
#238Re: Digital books wear out faster than physical books
#239Sure, if the "book" is a one-to-one representation of a physical book. It's not, though.
Re: Digital books wear out faster than physical books
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Also digital formats are constantly evolving and backwards compatibility for old formats is removed. While that was certainly true at one time, Unicode text, HTML, XML, and ZIP files aren't going anywhere (or there'll be a collapse of society so thorough that print books are unlikely to survive, either). EPUB books are basically XHTML and XML zipped up along with any external assets (e.g., images). There are nuance…
> HTML, XML, and ZIP files aren't going anywhere I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those go out of use in a few hundred years, if not much earlier. There will probably be major conversion efforts going on at some point. The alternative, the above formats being maintained for eternity, would be somehow depressing.
It would be a bit tragic if HTML goes out of use, but JavaScript continues XD