Murray

In Murray’s introduction to Hamlet on the Holodeck she titles her initial thoughts “A Book Lover Longs For Cyberdrama”. She gifts us with an honest look at the marriage of technology and literature. Her teaching credentials at MIT place her in an appropriate position to preach that this marriage is a healthy one. While she once lived by the way of the bound book, the arrival of the digital age peaked her interest in the medium. At first the technology left her discouraged, but that response had been true for past technologies as well. However, she and technology matured hand in hand leading her to become enchanted.  Working specifically to digitize education she received a lot of criticism. People think that human thought and idea can only be written, but obviously this argument is non sequitur because it is out dated. Murray states however that there is a connotation and experience that only books can give you, which to she adds that computers can also account for resources that wouldn’t be available to the strictly traditional reader.  Books are face value, what you get is what you get, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but a specific experience none the less. Holistically Murray has a very nuanced and credible opinion on the subject. She is a book lover who still enjoys the experience of reading a solid book; and at the same time she is excited to explore the possibilities of the new medium and where it will take us in the future.

            Murray exhumes the positive side in both mediums, which gives us an exciting and refreshing viewpoint on the subject. After reading the dogmatic arguments of Birkerts and his cohorts, we finally have a well-grounded opinion on the situation. Murray explains what individual powers books have and what individual powers computers have and what the two powers can accomplish together. And to use these powers for good; the educational outreach would be of biblical proportion. Murray then goes on to say that the computer is capable of visual learning that is not found in books. With books like Hugo however, this argument may become invalid. I support her belief in the visual advantage of digitalization, but if books like Hugo continue to emerge, they will have the same experience.

            Technology may be the biggest advantage we have in mass education though. With Mobil technology becoming more and more advanced, it will be easy to reach kids in desolate parts of the world. Tablets are becoming more and more affordable and if they made one specifically for education in poverty stricken regions, I’m sure they could come up with a very cost efficient product. Unlike sending physical books, getting an eBook to a tablet across the world is essentially cost free.

            With the potential of a tablet, I believe that one-day people will primarily read off of a screen. However, no matter how advanced tablets become there will be no invention that would prevent me from having a physical library and my house; the feeling on gets from looking at an old book is irreplaceable.