The New Textual Technologies 

     The chapter discusses the book industry's entrance into the digital world.  It takes a look at the American Library Association's use of the digital world by placing encyclopedias and reference information into a digital format. The author also discusses how Microsoft used the CD-ROM to share texts over the computer. The evolution of the APARNET to the World Wide Web and how NASA's decision to create an information data base that would be able to protect information even in the event of a nuclear explosion created this endless vortex of constantly evolving text technologies. The chapter also discusses how even with the advent of this new text technology there is something very timeless about the classic book.

Comment: I am often fascinated by the amount of science that went in the this new text technology, but it also makes me contemplate the amount of science that went into past text technologies like parchment. With all the steps and process people used to go through to create text materials I often wonder how people discovered the process and the amount of time and studies that went into producing a new text technology. 

Question: Has the invention of digital text put an end to the invention of new text technologies. Considering that text technologies emerge when there is a cheaper more efficient option on the market, and that digital text requires no more than a click of a button to receive the information and it makes printing costs and energies obsolete.