Book Review: The Future of the Page edited by Peter Stoicheff and Andrew Taylor - Page 3

Will we one day be able to do the same thing with our souls, reducing the foundations of our identities to code that can be digitally warehoused and transferred through ethernet? Muri neatly draws in the earlier discussions regarding the shift from illuminated manuscript to printing press. Citing Umberto Eco, she suggests that the shift may have been problematic for the church, not because it involved an adjustment to a new medium, but because the 'cathedral' lost some of its authority as gatekeeper of knowledge to an increasingly secular press. In the same way, perhaps our 'cathedral' is losing authority. The modern concept of human consciousness or personal identity, as represented by the paper page, is giving way to a 'secular' electronic arbiter of knowledge.

Again, in the silence, we find ourselves drawing a conclusion which is not so surprising after all: the challenge we face is not about adjusting to new ways and new ideas; it is about the age–old struggle for power.

Article Author: David Barker

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