Slide rule

So I've reinstalled my voice recognition software at home. I had it on the old computer but didn't move it over when I reinstalled. However, blogs that require thought end up with 4 hours solid typing (or writing, which amounts to the same) which I can't do more than once a month. Hopefully the voice stuff will be better.

Anyway, that's by way of explaining a short post. I'd like to do the Supreme Court one next, but that's probably longer than Iraq. So we'll go with dynamic paper.

---

I first used a slide rule in high school. It seemed terribly old fashioned, especially next to the cool new graphing calculators. It was also imprecise in that you had to line things up. You'd never be able to write 6 significant digits off that thing.

There is a value in seeing a logarithmic scale, though. It's akin to seeing the Lorenz ("butterfly") oscillator in motion. If all you ever see is the formula, the lookup table, the calculator, then you usually don't get the ideas that are behind them.

We live in an increasingly changing world. Computers are everywhere. Stores are open 24/7, as are financial markets. Mail doesn't just come at 2pm Monday to Saturday. The $2000 Encyclopedia Brittanica is replaced by the free and ever-changing Wikipedia.

We've moved from a world where the "relevant" data is no longer static. Newspaper circulation is down, but use of always-updated news web sites is up. Feed technology (like the icon at the of the address bar) and blogs keep us informed of a changing world.

You probably already know all of this.

My question is, what is the role of paper? I think books still have a role for fiction, as there are few external realities that act to undermine the legitimacy of a story. (Social mores may drive contextual changes over time, but at intervals not incompatible with published editions... e.g. new introductions, updated epilogues, etc.).

Non-fiction though... I wonder. Paper is portable, has high resolution, requires no power or internet connection, and can be written on.

What I've been thinking about is "books" that are internet databases. Updateable by the public or approved members. Rendered into the font size or style of your choice, margins and page sizes of your choice. You choose the content you want, filter it as desired (maybe only public comments that have been highly rated get included), apply a template, and get it printed at your local bookstore (which includes a Kinko's next to the Starbucks).

Perhaps you can print at home. Or at least download the current version, customized to your taste, to your PDA etc. Maybe there is no printer in your town, or you want to print on the back of paper you already have. If the reference book is disposable, maybe inks can be made much cheaper, as they only need to last a year or two. Like a newspaper.

I imagine a world where people collaborate on the Internet to build content of value, not a book in a traditional sense, but shared knowledge. Then others can come and take what they need from it, in the form that is useful to them.

What's that got to do with a slide rule? Let's say the book I want to print is one on the federal budget. I want to read the chapter that discusses balancing the budget. And I want to be able to adjust tax rates and see what the impact is on receipts and the deficit. And I want to see what the impact will be on someone with my income.

If I want to do this on my computer, I grab some little handles and slide them and the picture updates. The program can do the math just like that graphing calculator. But what about my book? How can I experiment with tax rates while sitting on a chair reading by the pool? I could go to a massive appendix that looks like the tax tables in your 1040-EZ, but that's not good enough.

The problem is, with the world becoming interactive and customized, we have the technology to make books customized but not interactive. (I'm still thinking non-fiction here.) My recipe book says "serves 8", but what if I want to serve 5? Can I leave the calculator behind?

How do you make a book do math?