I currently have all my books in crates, awaiting the building of my library. (Or, rather, that is a grand way to express “until I get some shelves for my home office.”) Finding a book to read is, in consequence, a hit-and-miss affair, though sometimes fun. Last night I found Umberto Eco’s How to travel with a salmon and other essays – a little gem of a collection of musings on travel, technology and various cultural phenomena.
In an essay on fax machines, written about 1989, he talks about how the fax machine allows you to send notes and drawings all over the world, even from hotel rooms. And, most importantly, how the technology at first is only accessible to a select few, and then, when it becomes democratized (i.e., everyone has it, it becomes inaccessible again, due to flooding of traffic – so you end up calling people to ask them to connect the fax, or perhaps, as he suggests, send them a letter ….
Sigh. At least sending a spam fax costs the sender something, which may be the whole difference.