How Books Will Become Machines / quote 9 of 21
Regulated representations become machines
Our core hypothesis is that regulated representations get more regular over time. The general process of this regulating tendency is the transformation of a convention into a mechanism. The regulation usually proceeds in two consecutive steps, firstly mechanizing the representation production rules and secondly its conventional usag- es. Ultimately, through this process, regulated representations tend to become machines. In the case of maps, the mechanization process has begun by a progressive automatization of the recording, gathering, storage and unification of geographical information. [...] We shall argue that books, as regulated representations and cul- tural tools, share many similarities with maps and tables. Because of this, there will exist a strong technological pressure to transform them into machines.