Re: Out-of-print math books: An Update

Bart Goddard <goddardbe@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
Bill Dubuque <wgd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in

Nowhere did I say anything like "everything is irrelevant
except utility".

When you called everyone's legitimate arguments not
"serious." You asked why one would prefer paper media.
Several people gave you real answers. You pooh-pooh them,
judging them by your (scary) standards instead of
considering them with a sensibly opened mind. You have
an "external" philosophy and can't imagine someone doing
something for an "internal" purpose. Therefore, anything
that argues an "internal" advantage is automatically
not serious.

Certainly it is your prerogative to prefer books over ebooks
because you like their smell or the way they look on your
bookshelf or, for the other reasons you state, namely

7) Can snap shut with satisfying "whump" when idiot
won't quit interrupting you while you're trying to read.

8) Can "whump" idiot's head solidly when he doesn't get
the hint above.

9) Can read on airplane during take-off and landing
(unless idiot insists on talking to you.)

10) Often the mere sight of a book will drive idiots off.
(It messes with their Ipods or something.)

11) Devoid of "OMG" and "UR" and other such idiot-speak.

12) I like leather.

I find such objections to be extremely frivolous in a forum
devoted to mathematics.

But I did find it ironic that the guy touting utility
falls back on the "beauty of mathematics" for one of
his arguments.

There's nothing at all ironic about valuing the beauty
of abstract mathematical objects more highly than that
of their concrete physical representations.

Since you studiously try not to get the point, I don't
know why I'd bother, but: It's not the concrete physical
representations that "beautiful", but rather the path
which they force you on. [...]

So, what _mathematical_ "path" can you take with paper books
that you can't also take with ebooks? In fact the reverse
is true. Many more paths can be explored much more efficiently
with ebooks because they can be annotated with web links
to wiki's, online courses, errata, etc. The static linear
nature of paper books _greatly_ restricts the paths one
can pursue. If instead you're arguing that the look and
smell of the books is an essential component of the "path"
followed when learning math, then stop the discussion here
- we obviously have strongly incompatible views of what
is important in mathematics.

If you've been "cheerfully resisting change since 1959"
then why are you using a computer to post this message?
Don't you miss the smell of your Remington typewriter ink,
and the clacking of the keys, and the "whump" of smacking
the carriage return? Eventually you'll accept the ebook
just like you did the computer. But obviously not without
a tremendous amount of bitching and "whumping" during the
process. Such are the woes of the technophobic during
technologic revolutions.
.

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