Quote:
Originally Posted by primbs
I wonder about the integrity of ebooks.
"What is really of concern, as those of us who have read our Orwell know, is that without hard copy books can be changed, doctored and manipulated at will to suit any political climate or support any bureaucratic or government agenda. The government is already dismantling and downgrading our libraries."
http://www.wired.com/politics/online...8/wiki_tracker
"George Orwell wrote his legendary novel 1984 just after World War II. It is renowned for its portrayal of government's encroachment on the rights of the individual."
"Pervasive thought control and surveillance of citizens is prominent throughout the novel."
"The Party maintained control of Oceania by manipulating facts, history, and citizens to retain power and dominate the masses."
Control of Information and History
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. Party slogan 1984"
"The complete lack of interest or care about American history by the vast majority of citizens, allows them to be misled by the State."
How will ebooks be protected from manipulation?
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth."
"Language as Thought Control"
"The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history. During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
That was a central point of the book.
Will we want to keep a few copies of paper books around? |
As long as there are those outside of Corporate or Government (one and the same to me) control who keep copies of the books in a digital format, I'm glad to say that the Orwell nightmare doesn't stand a chance. With these digital copies archived by individuals, any flaw or 'correction' after the fact, will be revealed. In a way the digital affords a greater ease of dissemination, something a physical book can never match. A digital file can cross continents in the blink of an eye, be shared instantaneously, and has none of the phsyical requirements of a paper book.
On the other hand I don't doubt that soon enough we're going to start seeing 'unofficial' edits of works, like the fan-edits of popular films. These will transform the original intention into something quite different. Imagine, if you will, a fan edit of the The Stand or War and Peace or any other long novel, according to the whims of the individuals who edit them. Who knows we might end up with a culture of edits that are better than the originals (in the case of Star Wars this has already been proven to be true).