If pages dissolved as you read them, so you couldn’t go back, what would they become?

Whether the result of clever marketing and product placement or not, this question made me think about eReaders.

The idea of pages disappearing makes me think of the world going ‘soft copy’ crazy that books, files and all kinds of paperwork a like are ceasing to be real tangible pages and existing as online or digital copies.

Rather than filling out forms in CAPITAL LETTERS in block writing with black pen only, I’m selecting boxes and typing in my full name.

Instead of visiting the library and taking home a full and rather heavy book bag, my 200g eReader currently holds 70 books and slots easily into my handbag.

My last job was to scan and file on a computer all the paperwork one level of one company had accumulated in the last 17 years. It took me 3 weeks and all the paperwork was then shredded.

That’s my idea of disappearing pages.

However, coming back to the question, if you couldn’t come back to previous pages, the story of thing you were reading would perhaps cease to exist. It would be like erasing history, inhibiting our own memories and removing records.

If it were a narrative and you misunderstood something or missed an important piece of information, you’d never be able to look back and check.

Mathematicians in my mind would suffer a hell of a lot not being able to flip back to check workings out or methods.

Books or texts of any kind couldn’t really exist because the moment you’ve seen it, it’s gone.

I’m not even sure if our evolution as humans would exist or continue if pages disappeared.. the internet surely wouldn’t be so big?