Paper and Pixel, the mutation of publishing. Alessandro Ludovico

The death of paper didn’t happen

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the death of paper was predicted.

It was foreseen just after the advent of public electricity networks and the consequent spreading of new revolutionary media, like the radio and the telegraph. The innovation impetus induced the hypothesis that the electrical transmission of the voice would have ended the printed distribution of information, replacing magazines and books with the faster voice that was transmitted over cables. The future seemed to be with wires everywhere, which would have spread the content of libraries to every home or in public spaces through some sort of broadcasting kiosks provided with primitive headphones.