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If the past two years are of any indication, my copy of That Is All may be the last physical book I acquire. The same can be said for the one or two CDs and Blueray discs I got, since they are more “collector’s items” than anything else.

It helps though. Those collector’s editions are mostly just filled with useless crap. The ones I own are not due to their size or packaging, but for the extra contents I actually go though. Now though, few movies or music or even less books are worthy of their “extra contents”, be it remastered editions or new releases. So what that means is that physical copies of digital contents are now obsolete for me.

The obviousness of this is enormous, yet for all those years we were oblivious to it: If all media is data, and if the Internet can transfer data, then let the Internet transfer all media. Broadcasting and mass distribution of physical media requires a certain uniformity of demand to be economically viable, requiring a more uniform culture mediated by a handful (4 for music, actually) of distribution companies. So why should I care if they die a slow death in this brave new world? Because bribing US politicians is too easy?

So, begone, stacks of DVDs and CDs and video game disks and books. I grow jealous of the next generations, bringing to school a single Ebook reader (or two) for their books and an iPod for music and games, while for generations before kids would stuff in their backpack the equivalent of a third of their weight in massive books.