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Snappy:
Yes, that's a quaint joke that pokes fun at Luddites and those opposed to technology & innovation, but sometimes there seems to be innovation for its own sake, and then its a good idea to just keep one's masakas.
Take this iPod thingy. I never owned one because I balked at the price, and didn't have internet access to buy the songs. So I bought a Treo 650 that had a SD card slot. now I can rock out on walks, and remind myself when to order fuel,, &tc. Some people have bought 7 iPods in the past decade. How has the technology advanced so much to justify this, and just what were they doing to the things that they were destroyed?
How many people who read this thread have a phonograph? How many use it? By that, I mean to ask how many people have a stack of newly purchased LP's & older content that they listen to on a daily/weekly basis, so that the phonograph is indeed a working component of the sound system, not simply that dusty box the nieces & nephews ask about?
I will guess very few. Some may have them, and dust them off occasionally to listen to some content not available digitally. Maybe many members are closet DJ's who mix their own tracks....
My point is that the phonograph is a useful technology. It survived some...50 odd years as the raining playback device (format wars notwithstanding), but then something truly better came along. Eventually, digitization caused a quantum leap in storage ability, sound quality, and ease of use.
As evidenced by all the squabbles we have within these threads regarding content, its value v. price, availability, &tc, e-texts are better in some ways than paper, not in others.
Everyone needs to think about the phonograph in the corner collecting dust and the 8-track lurking in the basment before we invest in new technology.
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