How Books Will Become Machines / quote 8 of 21
Book-machines versus the encyclopedia
It seems that books embodied in machines fail to deliver the main function of the printed book, i.e. allowing to structure complex discourses and narration. This is counterintuitive because mechanization steps usually offer more structuring options. Formalizing its conventional usage rules into mechanized processes, a book-machine should have the poten- tial to give more power to the author-architect. [...] We believe that by entering the realm of machines, the architec- tural function of books enters in direct competition with another powerful cultural tool that supports a dangerously seductive antag- onistic function, the Encyclopedia and its totalizing endeavor to document the entire world.