For the fun of being a devil's advocate, I'll suggest here that current (or
near-future) technology has already leap frogged over the physical
definition of the need for a Dynabook.

It's really all about convenience to the human person for the task at hand,
both physical convenience and mental convenience. So, these two observations
suggest to me what we're really headed for.


   1. Clearly, mentally, we now desire to search, view, organize, and
   manipulate much more information than can be stored in a Dynabook in any
   using any current or anticipated portable storage technology and to access
   that volume of data more quickly than can be transfered to any portable
   Dynabook. So, in many ways, interconnected, online, hosted, data and
   processes are more interesting and convenient for time and space than most
   things a Dynabook can manipulate in isolation.
   2. As shown by the fact that monocles have turned into glasses and, in
   turn, into contact lenses, pocket watches to wrist watches, desk phones to
   portable phones to cell phones to bluetooth ear pieces, and pens to touch
   screens to motion sensors (manipulating your own digits while they're close
   to you) ... it's more convenient for a device to hold on to you than for you
   to manually hold on to it.

Therefore, I suspect that future screens will be those devices that point
low power lasers into your eye and track head and eye motion giving you a
virtually infinite view-screen in size, depth, and detail ... in 3D ...
wearable ... hands-free. Maybe not sociably acceptable now, but needs
override social tastes over time. The audio will include a little voice,
like your conscience, overlaid on whatever you're listening to. The book
part won't be something you hold, but worn devices which input your voice
for situations where that's convenient, input your hand/finger gestures
where that's convenient, and your subvocalization where that's convenient,
and hide themselves in physically social situations.

Now if only I could invent a device that could make me look like I'm
interested and listening to when I'm not while someone is speaking directly
to me ... and recording was being said for later reference and prompting me
to say the appropriate "uh-huh" at the appropriate places.... I could make a
fortune selling that one :^)     (to married men).

The syllable "book" suggests a codex, which has been a convenient, familiar,
and dense medium of transporting, preserving, organizing, and sharing
information. But, new mediums tend to adapt the the resources available so
the codex form (morph) itself may be prosaic now.

Also, "dyna"  means power in Greek so a "Dynabook" is a "power-book" by
definition. ;-)

Cheers,
Darius
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