worlds made words
Anthony Grafton, co-author of Christianity and the Transformation of the Book, concludes his latest book with a dangling chapter about the Codex in Crisis. He presents many nuanced expressions of the attributes of paper and screen books and many nuanced expressions of the worth of libraries. But each is studied as a separate topic without a single suspicion that paper and screen books maybe fulfilling counterpart and interdependent roles. And there is no indication that libraries are the implementers of this cohesive transmission ecology. The interlock between self-authentication of paper books and self-indexing of screen books is not even suggested.
uncanny valley
“I
discussed
TTP (turn the page) book models in the context of the so-called “uncanny valley” -
this is the theory that as robots become more and more human-like,
they reach a point where we become disgusted by them – they are too
much like us and yet we understand they are not us. I’m not sure how
the comparison holds up but I think it’s an interesting and perhaps an
important point. TTP models are designed to be “true facsimiles” of
books, but they’re really just generic computer models with images
attached to them.” Dot Porter
A more and more comprehensive simulation of a manuscript book, either a digital or a physical facsimile, exists in an uneasy relation with the original. While the simulation can be authentically delivered, it lacks the defining capacity of self-authentication inherent in the source.
Curiously, a capacity of self-authentication begins to emerge only as a simulation distances itself from a unique original and begins to present a model or prototype of a more abstracted simulation. Then it begins to present unique characteristics all its own.
like life
“Fly into
Rome as it looked in 320 AD.” If not diverted to Indianapolis for refueling, we expect to land at our destination on time. Google Earth is providing options to this expectation. Their flight to late Antiquity Rome swoops down into town for a look around. Soon we can wander about as avatars not quite like life.
But we will spend real vacation time. Are we tourists or are we being toured? Some simulations suspend disbelief and visitors become natives. Perhaps there is time to write a book on papyrus.