Thoughts on Paper, the Present and the Future

Abstract

A recent anecdote refers to a child who told his father he would have seen a supercomputer in his grandfather's garage. Surprised, the father asks him how it was that machine. The boy describes: the computer had no screen, the keyboard was attached to it, while it is typed, the text was simultaneously printed, and the best, did not need to be plugged and was not dependent on sophisticated programs or operating system, passwords, etc. Actually, it was a simple typewriter with which the boy had never had contact.Appears to me the question: how long will use paper as a reading media? Were books, magazines, comics, newspapers, finally, all the knowledge set by writing, to be converted to digital format, allowing access and read on any phone, tablet or multimedia kiosk?My grandmother, 20 years ago, almost blind, passionate about reading, used the talking book: cassette tapes that told stories! At this time I thought: there is the future! In true, she preferred someone beside her, reading a story or a book. This kind of book, even with all of "modernity" that represented, did not move forward.A few years ago the tablets and digital books came. I thought: now yes, the world of electronic reading will change. This electronic device was launched 6 years ago with affordable format and popular price, however, when visiting the traditional bookstores, I see a plethora of books on all subjects, in different formats, on large shelves and calls me the attention that there are often many people in front of it, handling them, flipping them, reading them, some even furtively, as if read without buying it were a large tort.A particular journal, which I have access to, a few years ago started to publish the chapter Material and Methods only online and at the end of this year, will have it only by digital access. At the same time, the Sci-ELO is mandating that all collection of its magazines start to be presented in a digital language called XML (extensible markup language), thus being published electronically and accessed via smartphones, tablets and computers.I support this initiative because, once again reinforcing my enthusiasm for progress and the easy access to information. However, unless my brain is fooled, my ability to understand a text is still much higher when presented in paper record. I can, in this format, locate passages I've ever read, without anything more than a quick eye movement. Rereading is easier since I easily fixed the text in memory.But, this ability is individual and may depend on the evolution of learning. Each new generation seems to be more eager for information and dependent on the speed with which this knowledge comes to them. Hours in libraries in research related texts, today are replaced by search engines where only a keyword and a click determine a list of endless other similar sources, which greatly facilitates the researcher's life.So, if for researchers the crossing of the digital language of information allowed by technology facilitate their work, the reader is interested in a text that bring...