"Fahrenheit 451" author burns at the idea of digital books.

[SivartM]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iLc1OTfjqIQZmf-69nK0J9WDCLmQ

Quote:

Bradbury also bridled at the spread of modern technology, saying: "We have too many cellphones. We've got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now."

The author of "Fahrenheit 451", which depicted a US future in which critical thought was banned and books burned, told the Times he had rebuffed proposals to convert his written works into digital formats to be read on devices like Amazon.com's Kindle or the Apple iPad.

Do you think we have too many Internets? I thought there was only one...

[phkrause]

I guess some don't like progress. :)

[Outta Here]

Don't be fooled, Sivart, there are many internets (as well as intranets). There is but one Internet, however--as well as one World Wide Web. It is most likely that the author of the article misinterpreted what Mr. Bradbury said and put the capitalization in place, when indeed there was likely no capitalization of the word, "internets" in Mr. Bradbury's spoken words.

Digital books are not necessarily progress, in my opinion. There are so many different avenues for publication these days that quality publishing (and quality literature) is more difficult to come by.

Just think how easy it would be to permanently "ban" certain reading materials from existence if all reading material were available only in digital format.

[SivartM]

I think the more likely explanation is that he's 90 years old, doesn't like modern technology, and therefore doesn't know much about the Internet...

I don't think that they could be banned that easily if the books were in open formats... which will be the kind of books that survive the ebook war.