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讀麥·講演·書的未來(1972)·007

作者:讀麥

(James F. White)In 1884 a Chicago businessman, A. B. Dick, solved a business need for rapid duplication by inventing a process for stencil duplication. It proved so efficient that he marketed it under the name of“Mimeograph”. Gutenberg made it possible to put prayer books in the hands of people; Dick made prayer books obsolete. Prayer books are mostly propers which are hard to locate and confusing to most people. Dick gave each minister his own printing press and a new possibility of printing only what was needed to do the same for hymnals.

(詹姆斯·A·懷特)1884年,一位芝加哥商人A·B·迪克發明了一種模闆複制的方法,解決了對快速複制的商業需求。事實證明,這種方法非常有效,是以他将其命名為“仿造的器具”。谷登堡使得把祈禱書交到人們手中成為了可能;迪克使祈禱書過時了。祈禱書通常意味着難以明确位置的章節,因而讓大多數人窘迫。迪克讓每一位牧師有了自己的印刷機,提供了一種新的可能,即,隻印刷所需的内容,如同從贊美詩集中挑選所需一樣。

按:谷登堡解決了資訊的複制,迪克解決了短平快地複制資訊。

油印隻印刷所需的篇章乃至某一頁某一段,這凸顯了機制書的不足:一是作為資訊容器的書本大于即時的資訊需求,書到用時方恨厚——書到用時方恨少說的是資訊的關聯不是資訊的存量——二是書的形制為資訊平添出一種确定位置的麻煩。

這一段,麥氏引自James F. White的《New Forms of Worship》(New York:Abingdon Press,1971,P28)

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