Anyone who has spent decades in the technology world develops a particular instinct for distinguishing genuine revolutions from inflated promises. Having served as CEO of companies like Compaq, Oracle, NCR, and AT&T, I have witnessed firsthand the rise and fall of numerous technological predictions.
History proved that e-commerce did not replace commerce: it complemented it. Likewise, digital books may have a complementary future alongside the printing industry, but believing the book will be replaced is a stretch that will be impossible to bridge.
A printed book requires energy to create, but from that point on, it is a passive agent that only needs human energy to be read. A digital book demands electrical energy every single time we wish to read it. Energy is one of the main limiting factors in the technology industry.
Anyone who has spent more than five years in the technology industry has suffered a format change. The printed book has not essentially changed its format: pages of paper with text in ink. It has been so for centuries.
Can you dedicate an e-reader with a handwritten phrase? Will great-grandchildren be able to reread that dedication through touch, sight, and even the smell of its pages? This is not about rejecting technology: it is about understanding that not every innovation improves what already works well.
Technology is an extraordinary tool when applied where it genuinely adds value, but not when used to replace what already works optimally. The book remains the most efficient vehicle, closest to human nature, for transmitting knowledge.
