Like getting wrinkles over time, technology and uses change, too. Often, the changes are rather quiet. Even when they are ballyhooed and trumpeted, it is easy to get accustomed to a new interface or method and forget how different things are now compared to what they were. It is rather common to ask something like what would George Washington think of the world today? We can feel rather sure that George would be stunned by developments every time he turned around, maybe to the point of genuine dizziness or worse.
When thinking about who and what we are, it is speech that often gets first place. Other animals can alert members of a group with a call, but they don't seem to have puns and poems. So, worldwide, we have spoken language. Then, I guess somewhere about 8000 years ago, we have writing. That is a biggie since it enables animals like us, with limited life spans, to communicate with those who have already died.
Much more recently, sending books in electronic file form started happening. I Googled "when did ebooks begin?" and got this:
1971
Starting back in 1971, Michael S. Hart launched Project Gutenberg and digitized the U.S. Declaration of Independence, becoming the first eBook in the world.Mar 10, 2014
The History of eBooks from 1930's "Readies" to Today's GPO ...
https://govbooktalk.gpo.gov › 2014/03/10 › the-history-o...
People also ask
When did ebooks become commercially available?
The industry for buying and selling e-books first emerged as a mainstream business in the late 1990s, when companies like Peanut Press began selling book content for reading on personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld devices that were the predecessors of today's smartphones and tablet computers.
e-book | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica
I got my first ebook in 2008. I was quite pleased with it and I still am. But since then, there have been important changes and additions. There are several versions of devices meant to mostly be like books. Kindles, Nooks and Kobo readers are the ones I know about. However, once an Amazon ebook is in my Amazon archive, I can also read it on the web at
And on smartphones, tablets like iPad or Samsung tablets, or computers. At one time, I thought it would be too uncomfortable to read a book on a smartphone but I quickly adjusted while waiting for a friend's plane to arrive. There are additional deals, services and possibilities these days that didn't exist in 2008. Libraries loan ebooks through the air with apps like Libby. Kindle Unlimited allows certain books to be read for no additional charge but only ten at once. I am confident that additional deals and temporary offers will be invented over time. Alternative ebook providers, free and not-free will be invented, like Bookbub and Gutenberg Project.
