And once I'm dead, broke, or have simply moved on from the tech universe?
The ephemerality of the thing is the issue I'm speaking to. We've lost something here.
The requirement for books to last is physical space, and those shelves and boxes continue to exist far longer than the publishers, authors, illustrators, etc. We don't have that with this medium (except, of course, archive.org which is excellent and not nearly enough). We've built something that's lighter than books and easier to store in smaller spaces, but we've [collectively] given no thought to maintaining a proper archive.
The freedom to publish to the world in an instant is as magical as it is fleeting. On a longer scale of time - and not a very long one - it's practically worthless.
The ephemerality of the thing is the issue I'm speaking to. We've lost something here.
The requirement for books to last is physical space, and those shelves and boxes continue to exist far longer than the publishers, authors, illustrators, etc. We don't have that with this medium (except, of course, archive.org which is excellent and not nearly enough). We've built something that's lighter than books and easier to store in smaller spaces, but we've [collectively] given no thought to maintaining a proper archive.
The freedom to publish to the world in an instant is as magical as it is fleeting. On a longer scale of time - and not a very long one - it's practically worthless.