Paper is better for the brain.
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Years back, many leftist organisations used mimeographs to print their newspapers, magazines, or journals, using low-quality paper and toxic ink with petroleum solvents, lead and cadmium, and was also used by several printing shops, but the spread of their news media was very limited. Linotype operators were exposed to metal characters created with lead, and that metal produces cancer
Most newspapers, magazines, and books were typed by Linotype operators until the creation of offset printing; many workers lost their jobs, and many died from cancer. Most physical old books were typed by Linotype operators
Several organisations have reprinted those newspapers in digital format, and now they have a bigger audience, and that information has not been lost; they have better fonts and better presentation; they have added an artistic format and a better background.
We must look into the benefits and disadvantages of both worlds
I have translated most of the old pamphlets published by the SPGB into PDF format, and using software, I was able to correct many grammar and punctuation mistakes in some of them. I found more than 480 mistakes in one pamphlet, and now they have been corrected. The new format can be used to reprint them
Software like Adobe, Grammarly, and WordPerfect (mostly used by law firms ) will transform an old book into a nicer format. The old days of typists ( and typewriters) and Greg shorthand are gone
There is no scientific evidence that reading books from an e-reader or a digital book produces neurological damage; the light or the rays of the device might affect your eyesight, and it can produce digital eye strain.
It might produce some side effects, like some medications produce side effects.
Long use of iPhones might produce ear damage. Long use of computer screens can create minor insomnia.
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/digital-devices-your-eyes
I have paper books and digital books, and sometimes I have found that some digital books have better fonts than the original book, and the quality of the book has been better than the paper book.
I have used Kindle, Fire, and iPad, and iPad is very good for reading textbooks because it is in colour, especially Apple reading apps; some old textbooks did not have pictures. Going to school reduces the load of carrying heavy textbooks, especially books for natural science and law.
I have paper backups for textbooks, and I read them when I get home
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E-readers do not produce neurological damage. No scientific evidence suggests that reading on an e-reader causes physical harm, lesions, or degenerative diseases in the brain.However, neuroscientists and medical researchers have found that digital reading changes how the brain processes information and can cause temporary physiological side effects.
Temporary Physiological effects:
Sleep Disruption:
Traditional E-Ink readers (like the basic Kindle) reflect light like paper. However, modern e-readers with built-in front lights or tablet-based reading apps (like the Kindle Fire or iPad) emit blue light.Studies by groups like Harvard Medical School show that evening exposure to this light suppresses melatonin secretion, alters circadian rhythms, and reduces morning alertness.
Digital Eye Strain:
Prolonged reading on any digital device can lead to Computer Vision Syndrome. Symptoms include headaches, blurred vision, and dry eyes, though these are temporary and disappear with rest. E-Ink screens cause significantly less strain than standard LCD or OLED tablet screens.2. Cognitive and Processing Differences
While not “damage,” the human brain alters its cognitive approach based on the medium: The “Shallowing Effect”: Digital formats encourage fast scanning and browsing rather than deep immersion.
Lower Retention:
Brain imaging studies compiled by Neuroscience News indicate that reading on paper creates a “spatial map” in the mind, making it easier to remember complex narratives compared to the infinite scroll or uniform pages of a screen.
Cognitive Load:
Reading on tablets requires the brain to spend more energy managing the medium itself (scrolling, adjusting settings, resisting notifications), leaving fewer cognitive resources for deep comprehension.ion
Staring at digital screens, including e-readers, for extended periods reduces your blink rate and dries out the moisture layer on your eyes, leading to temporary blurriness and eye strain, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Why Screens Cause Eye Strain: Decreased blinking:
You normally blink every 5 to 7 seconds, but that rate drops to every 15 to 20 seconds when focusing on a digital screen.
Evaporating tears: Reduced blinking dries out your eye’s tear film, causing your vision to blur until you blink again to spread fresh tears.
Extended focus:
Continuous near-vision work tires the focusing muscles inside the eye.
Some old, rare, and out-of-print books are being physically destroyed, but this is not happening to create consumer Kindle e-books.
Instead, major tech companies are doing this on an industrial scale to train artificial intelligence (AI) models.
When a standard old book is digitised to become a commercial Kindle or e-reader book, non-destructive scanning methods—like overhead cameras or specialised cradles—are used to preserve the original artefact.
The current situation involving book destruction is driven by a different process:
Why Are Books Being Destroyed?
Training AI Chatbots: Companies like Amazon, Anthropic (through “Project Panama”), and other tech giants need high-quality, human-written text to train their Large Language Models (LLMs).
The Pre-2022 Premium: The internet is now saturated with AI-generated text. Tech companies are aggressively buying older books because they provide “clean,” high-density data entirely untouched by AI.
Destructive Scanning: To digitise millions of pages as fast as possible, industrial facilities use “destructive scanning”. This involves using hydraulic cutting machines to slice off the book’s spine, running the loose pages through high-speed automatic document feeders, and then recycling or pulping the paper remnants.
Are They Actually Destroying “Rare” Books?
Investigations by investigative outlets like 404 Media have tracked bulk orders from secondhand marketplaces (like Biblio and Alibris) directly to tech warehouses.
Because these buyers place massive automated orders based on ISBN lists or specific subject parameters, they frequently buy up antique, limited-edition, and out-of-print historical texts without screening out culturally significant copies.
Is This Legal?
A U.S. federal court recently ruled that this process is legal under copyright Fair Use laws. Because the tech companies legally purchase the physical copies and destroy them after scanning, the court viewed it as transforming one physical copy into one private digital copy rather than illegal duplication or piracy.
AI chatbots are being infiltrated into discussion forums, and they are pretending to be human. We are living in a very bizarre world
AI Overview
The French public and cultural sectors have responded with intense alarm, deep cultural unease, and immediate legal retaliation following unsealed U.S. court documents exposing “destructive scanning”—the practice where AI firms like Anthropic buy physical books, slice off their bindings with hydraulic cutters, scan the pages, and pulp the paper to secure “pure,” human-written, pre-2022 data. [1, 2, 3]
Because the French perspective heavily prioritizes l’exception culturelle (the belief that cultural goods are not mere commodities), the reaction has transcended standard technological debate, triggering sharp resistance across several layers of society.
1. Legal and Institutional Retaliation
While a U.S. federal judge ruled that destructive scanning is legally protected under the “first-sale doctrine” (provided the company buys the print copy fair and square and destroys the physical book to maintain a 1:1 format shift), European and French laws do not mirror this structure. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Publishers Launching Lawsuits: Vincent Montagne, president of the French Publishers’ Union (SNE), slammed the practice and immediately escalated a legal offensive. The SNE, alongside independent French authors, filed a massive counterfeiting and unfair competition lawsuit against Meta and other AI firms, vowing to fight the exploitation of French literature to the very end. [1]
Copyright Defiance: Under European jurisdiction, mass scanning without direct authorization from copyright holders is considered a clear infringement. French cultural bodies are heavily lobbying the European Union to close any legal loopholes that AI companies might exploit to shield themselves under the guise of “transformative use”. [1, 2, 3, 4]
2. Backlash From Bookshops and Literary Circles
The revelations from “Project Panama”—Anthropic’s internal code name revealing their objective to “destructively scan all the books in the world”—sparked particular outrage within France’s deeply embedded network of independent bookshops (librairies). [1, 2]
Fears of Data Poisoning and Manipulation: French historians, intellectuals, and book enthusiasts have taken to public forums to voice a dystopian anxiety. They argue that taking France’s literary history and locking it behind a private corporate database allows tech behemoths to eventually manipulate, rewrite, or erase original historical and cultural records. [1]
Suspicious Bulk Orders: Independent bookstores across Europe, including adjacent borders, started raising red flags after receiving massive, automated, and erratic online orders for obscure, out-of-print, and academic titles. Sellers expressed horror upon realizing that these books were not destined for preservation, but were being routed to bulk collection points to be stripped, digitized, and fed to machines. [1, 2]
3. Cultural Evocations of “Barbarism”
In the French media and public square, the response has been framed around deep philosophical and historical traumas.
The “Anti-Alexandria” Sentiment: The act of intentionally pulping physical books to feed artificial intelligence has been widely branded by European critics and literature lovers as “a kind of barbarism”. [1]
Fahrenheit 451 Realized: Commentators in the French press have drawn chilling comparisons to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. The public consensus points out a dark, modern irony: whereas historical regimes destroyed books to erase human knowledge, Silicon Valley is buying and shredding them to teach machines how to replicate human thought—treating France’s rich literary heritage purely as disposable raw material.Business as usual, and workers marching behind their own exploiters.
AI chatbots have replaced libraries, bookstores and newspapers; everybody is being brainwashed by the ruling class and repeating everything like parrots.
It is becoming a society of zombies. Truth is becoming a lie, and the lie is becoming the truth.
Right now, you have to be very careful; you do not know what is real journalism or what is fake journalism, real-world history versus fake history, witchcraft versus real science.
Even more, comic book stores are closing because people are not reading anything; even children are not reading children’s stories.
There were magazines of illustrious lives (Vidas ilustres), such as Greek philosophers, humanists, great composers, and scientists, that were read by children, and they have vanished.
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https://www.comics.org/series/26026/They were sold at pharmacies, and we used to exchange them among ourselves.
Many children learned to read or improve their reading with comic books. They were based on fantasies, but they were much better than war video games.
Two libraries near my house have been closed, and grass is covering the building, and people do not say anything about it, but they complain about superficial issues like the beautiful sound of pigeons, doves, chickens, wild birds or a neighbour with a tree covering their stupid view.
My first university is now surrounded by bars, pubs, nightclubs and prostitution houses; it used to be surrounded by bookstores and students reading books outside or sitting on the floor of the bookstores.
It is preferable to live with the Amish or the natives; at least they have a sense of community and harmony
At present you go to any discussion forum, they do not have any discussion or dialogue everthing are insults and personal attacks. They do not respect elderly peoples any more
They do not have any arguments because they are not reading anything, and all of them are protecting their own exploiters and writting christians craps.
Still, many Chinese and Indians publishing companies are printing and reprinting books on a large scale, especially textbooks and classical books. Books in demand are being printed in the USA, a nd some of them are of very good quality: good paper, good fonts and good hard and soft covers
If a law student needs six or twelve textbooks, each one costing more than $300.00 ( hornbooks or casebooks ) and digital books cost $40.00 each, what is he going to do? He is going to buy the digital books or a used law summary that only costs $ 9.00, or a used nutshell that costs $3.00; that is not enough. He must spend several hours in the school library reading the books recommended by the teachers. The same case applies to medical students. Translations are more expensive. The cost of education is pretty high, and publishing companies ( Physical and digital books ) are making a lot of profits. Used bookstores’ profit margins are very low, and some of them have been purchased by the big and powerful retailers
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