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In a post-literate age, books are acting like chatbots. Can reading survive?
This is the first of a series of eight primers on current affairs and issues in the news, and what they mean for Singapore.
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Readers who had no time to plough through author Irene Ng’s 1352-page The Lion’s Roar had a chance to instead pose questions about the book to the National Library Board's generative AI-powered chatbot in 2024.
PHOTO: ST FILE
SINGAPORE – The swarm of digital media is reversing the literacy gains made possible by the Gutenberg press. Society is engulfed by more images and fewer books. No one pays attention unless information comes sweetened with a jingle and a well-groomed celebrity. Welcome to the age of post-literacy.
Except, this is not the “brainrot” that addles screen addicts today. This was the diagnosis made in 1962 by philosopher Marshall McLuhan when he wrote The Gutenberg Galaxy, and then again, in 1985, when media theorist Neil Postman published Amusing Ourselves To Death.
