Re: [tlug] Amazon Kindle

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

CL writes:

 > everyone else. The Kindle business model is going to assure that book 
 > sellers collect payment for every single read,

I wouldn't worry.  If it didn't work for Stephen King, it's not going
to work period (unless the U.S. Congress gets persuaded to outlaw
giving away your property because it has somebody else's words printed
on it).  I suspect that Amazon is smarter than to depend on that
model, although I can't tell you what "plan B" is.

 > but it is also going to destroy the local sense of community, which
 > began to disintegrate when people could cut themselves off from
 > others by stuffing earplugs in their ears, a little bit more.

Something to consider, but I'm not really worried.  Since my daughter
(10) started walking around with plugs in her ears half the time, I've
been a lot more observant of the, er, phenomenon.  Here are a couple
observations for ya: (1) I love my wife, but there are days (like more
than one a week) when turning up the iPod is the right response to her
rants, especially if you're a sensitive 10-year-old girl.  Japanese
society reminds me a lot of my wife!  While the U.S. has a lot less
'Pod people than I remember in Tokyo and Tsukuba.  (2) 10-year-old
girls (and 10-year-old boys!) in any country tend to fall together in
heaps with plugs in their ears (or Gameboys in their hands).  They
still need some kind of contact, even if it can't be verbal.  Reminds
me a lot of my stoner friends in high school and college: too stoned
to talk, but still "communing" with each other.

Yes, it does get pathological for some individuals.  But a lot of the
pathology is already out there in society; I have to wonder if a lot
of the "pathological people" are not just "people adjusting to
pathological situations" in this way.  I think the human spirit is
resilient enough to cope with this.