Guest Post: Dinner with Amazing People – Topic: The Future of the Book

I’m pleased to bring you another guest post courtesy of the clever and generous folks at The Amazing People Club.  As I have said on here before*, I love hearing various people’s take on the “What five famous people would you invite to dinner” question.  It is a common feature in writing exercises and as a “getting to know me” question, and I think it is intriguing to see who people choose.  Well, today’s guest post, provided by the Amazing People Club, is a take on this – in it, the Club’s Dr. Charles J. Margerison hosts an imaginary dinner party with a handful of truly amazing people to discuss the future of the book, as well as these historic figures takes on contemporary society.  Enjoy!

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Dinner with Amazing People – Topic: The Future of the Book

Hosted by Dr Charles J. Margerison

The Proposal

If you could invite anyone to a dinner party to share great ideas, who would you invite?

I started by inviting Johannes Gutenberg* and William Shakespeare. Both had created a revolution in reading and writing. In turn, they decided to invite Wolfgang Mozart, Thomas Edison, Elizabeth Blackwell and Richard Pearse to join the meeting.

You may ask how this was done. The magic of modern technology makes it possible. The BioView® Time Link is a new top-secret system developed by The Amazing People Club for educational use.

I developed the BioView® process in order to meet amazing people from all eras. It is a new story format where those who have made memorable contributions to music, literature, science, business, engineering, art and other areas tell their stories as though being interviewed. The process is called a BioView® because it is a form of biographical interview.  The life and work of each amazing person comes alive through their own personal descriptions.

The Amazing People Club is the international publishing company of a major series which includes books such as Amazing Scientists, Amazing

Entrepreneurs, Amazing Doctors and Nurses, Amazing Careers and Amazing

Women. BioViews® transport readers and listeners through time, so that they can read and hear what people like Shakespeare, Gutenberg and other leaders say through an interpretative interview.

The Meeting

I wondered whether my first two guests would agree to attend. After all, they had to travel long distances. William Shakespeare had to cover over 400 years. ‘No trouble,’ he said, ‘I will be travelling at the speed of light.’ Johannes Gutenberg had to travel over 600 years, but said it would be no problem.

When they arrived, I asked them who they would like to meet and was surprised by their answers. ‘Could we invite someone to represent different generations?’ asked Shakespeare, ‘I would like to talk to people from the age of electricity. I also want to learn about railways, cars and planes, as we did not have such great inventions during the period between 1564 and 1616 when I was active.’ Gutenberg, with a wry smile, said, ‘Please invite a doctor, as I will be the oldest one there.’

I took their suggestions and thought about who my other guests should be. I was delighted when Dr Elizabeth Blackwell accepted my invitation. She was the first lady to qualify as a doctor in the USA, in about 1850, and the first registered female doctor in Britain. ‘I would like to meet William and Johannes,’ she said, ‘And if you can arrange it, please invite Wolfgang Mozart, as I always admired his music.’

While his Magic Flute music was playing in the background, I contacted Wolfgang and he agreed to join us. He said that during his life between 1756 and 1791, he dreamt that it would be possible to phone someone and would like to meet a great inventor who had made that possible.

Therefore, I contacted Thomas Edison who developed the phone after the early work by Antonio Meucci and Alexander Bell. ‘What an amazing opportunity,’ said Thomas. ‘I look forward to meeting William, Johannes,Elizabeth and Wolfgang, but can you arrange for Richard Pearse to be there?’

I said that I did not know him. ‘He was the first person to fly a powered aeroplane,’ replied Thomas, ‘And I always wanted to know how he did it.’

I looked Mr Pearse up and found that he came from New Zealand. I asked him to join us.  Therefore, the seven of us met via the magic of the new BioView ® Time Travel online system. It was like having a Skype meeting, where we could see and hear each other communicating across the centuries.

The Guests

• William Shakespeare: Playwright, England, 1564 – 1616
• Johannes Gutenberg: Inventor, Printer and Publisher, Germany, 1400 – 1467*
• Elizabeth Blackwell: Physician, England and USA, 1821- 1910
• Thomas Edison: Inventor and Entrepreneur, USA, 1847 – 1931
• Wolfgang Mozart: Musician, Austria, 1756 – 1791
• Richard Pearse: Farmer and Aviator, New Zealand, 1877 – 1953

It was my privilege to chair the meeting. After the introductions, I started by saying that there are many discussions underway around the world on The Future Of The Book. There are questions regarding what, if any, role the book will play. In the context of how books play a part in supporting educational, scientific and cultural development, people are keen to gain ideas on the future of publications and, in particular, the role of the book.

William Shakespeare leant forward and said, ‘It was all so different in my day, during the late 16th and early 17th Centuries. There was no television or radio, nor films or computer games. Entertainment was mainly at the theatre or at village fairs. For each performance at the Globe Theatre in London, where I worked, there could be 3000 people and more. During a two week season, we could have as many as 50,000 people attending.

‘In the summer, families brought their picnics and enjoyed themselves in the surrounding fields. The start of a play was signalled by a man playing a trumpet to let everyone know. We also had actors travelling with the country fairs to perform the plays. It was all great fun, except when the plague descended. We then had to close down to try and stop the spread of the disease.

‘Although books were printed, it was expensive to publish them and therefore the ordinary people could not afford them. People preferred to attend a play, as they found reading difficult. With modern education, I can see that most children, in the developed countries, are taught to read. The new electronic systems will help them learn more quickly. I am amazed to see how quickly children learn to spell using the new word games on their handheld computers.’

Dr Elizabeth Blackwell nodded her agreement and. ‘The plague was still rife when I was born in 1821,’she said. ‘That was one of the reasons I fought hard to become a doctor. I wanted to help people who were ill and try to prevent disease spreading. The biggest problem was that the male doctors prevented women from entering the profession. I only got a place at medical school when the students voted for me. Other women suffered the same prejudice and opposition. For example, I met Florence Nightingale during the 1850s. She was a brilliant nurse who tried to cure those who were ill. However, Florence was opposed by doctors for so-called interfering, when in fact she was saving lives. That is why I set up hospitals for women and their children in both London and New York.

‘Books were available during my time, but still scarce. Ironically, printed versions will be scarce in the future due to the new online books. They will enable people not only to read, but also to hear and see the points. That is very important in medicine when knowledge of how to do things, rather than just knowledge of the facts, is vital.’

Wolfgang Mozart came into the discussion. ‘That is interesting, as I was very fortunate to recover from smallpox and other illnesses’ he said. ‘Smallpox attacked both me and my sister, Nannerl, during one of our tours of Europe. At the time, we were like one of the modern pop groups. Managed by my father, we travelled from city to city entertaining people. I had the opportunity to play for Kings and Queens and the aristocracy of Europe. But, my major problem was protecting my music manuscripts. There was no way of doing so other than having copies made. Often I had to strap my music manuscripts inside my clothes to stop them becoming wet. Getting my music published and put into a bound version was not easy. Indeed, so much music has been lost over the ages because producing a book was difficult. Just think of how much more music I could have written if I had a modern computer. One thing is already certain: with people reading music on a screen as they play, the music manuscript in the form I wrote it in will disappear.’

I complimented him on his ability to speak English. ‘I learned to speak many languages by visiting France, Holland and Italy. My English improved when, as a young boy, I lived in London for over a year. Although having access to books, I learned more from action – both in music and understanding languages. However, I can see the modern computers will make it much easier for students and adults to learn the theory and practice of music. I am very pleased about that.’

Thomas Edison asked Mozart, ‘How did you find time to create so many masterpieces?’

‘It was difficult,’ Mozart replied, ‘As my father arranged many concerts. We travelled long distances, often in bad weather. I wrote a lot of my music at our home in Salzburg, Austria, in between our travels. I enjoyed writing and playing the music. It was like a game that I wanted to master and a hobby also. Because I was good at it I wanted to write more, so that I could play the music to people and give enjoyment.’

‘That is how I felt also,’ said William Shakespeare. ‘Time flashed by when I was writing, often late at night under candlelight, as we had no other form of illumination.’

Thomas Edison replied, ‘Finding how to make electric lights work was one of the greatest challenges of my life. With my team, I found out how we could produce light bulbs and generate electricity. One of the first big projects was to light up Pearl Street in New York during 1882. Surprisingly, it was easier to create electric current than to make a light bulb. It took over 1000 experiments before we succeeded.

‘My view is that the future is about electronic publications. The meaning of the word ‘book’ will be changed. There is already talk of the E Pub3 online book and the enhanced book and shortly there will be the video book, full of animations and virtual images.’

Richard Pearse had listened in quietly. Thomas Edison turned to him and said, ‘You are a world champion of aviation, as you flew the first engine-powered flight. Therefore, you had the world record for both speed and distance. How did you get an aeroplane to fly?’

‘With great difficulty,’ Pearse said, smiling. ‘I made my living as a farmer in the South Island of New Zealand in the early 1900s. My hobby was engineering. Therefore, in my spare time, I built an engine onto a bicycle frame and put some basic wings on it. I then took to a dirt track in the countryside. To my amazement, the bicycle plane took to the sky. Landing was the worst part. I was almost killed when I crashed into a bush. It was another nine months before the Wright Brothers took off in their power-driven plane, but I did not know that at the time.

‘In my day it took a long time to get information. I had to write to the USA to get magazines on aviation. It could take up to six months before they arrived. Now, with electronic books, you can have the information in seconds. So, my prediction is that just as I helped speed up physical travel, the new electronic delivery will speed up innovation as people hear and see what others are doing.’

William Shakespeare said, ‘I would have liked to fly and also to have had electric light in order to write more.’

Edison replied, ‘I would have liked to have had your ability to create stories. Instead, I created machines such as the phonograph that helped people tell those stories.’

As time was moving on, I asked each one of them what they would like to do if they lived in the modern era.

Richard Pearse replied immediately, ‘I would like to fly in the new Boeing Dreamliner 787 plane and the latest Airbus, to see what engineers who came after me have been able to achieve.’

Elizabeth Blackwell said, ‘I was delighted to hear that smallpox was eradicated in 1980 and I would like to be part of the campaign to rid the world of other infectious diseases.’

Thomas Edison responded, ‘I am fascinated by computers, as they would have helped me so much with my inventions. I would like to work on computer-based applications in engineering.’

Wolfgang Mozart thought deeply before saying anything. ‘Music came easily to me, as if it was a gift from God. I would have liked more than the 35 years that I had on Earth in order to compose. New computer systems will enable people to do far more in the time they live than we could do. Therefore, my wish is that that this BioView® Time Link system enables us all to continue with our contributions. Those who are just starting their careers can learn from us and we can learn from them.

‘In truth, our spirits remain through our work. It is our lasting contribution and with modern technology more people will know what we did. In that sense, we can and will travel through time through the new forms of publication. We will be far more famous than in our own lifetime. Therefore, rather than talking about the book, we should focus discussions on making publications and the way they are distributed. The book is just one form of communication designed for our eyes. Artists also design their communication for people’s eyes. My form of communication was for the ears. In contrast, engineers develop machines that people use by touching. In the future, it will be necessary to consider published communications through the ability to smell, read, see, touch and hear all at the same time. After all, we do that every day in our real lives.’

William Shakespeare agreed and said a multi approach will help people learn more quickly. ‘Publishing my work would have been easier with the power to send my plays around the world with the click of a button. Yes, I would have liked to use a computer and to have written more plays and poems. Others will continue to do those things, but they will look to online publishing. There are many computer applications that exist for that. So, I see the end of the book, as we have known it. But, it is not the end of publications and publishing. The ability to publish and let people know of one’s work will continue as major challenges.’

I thanked them all for joining in.

‘You have all left a legacy to inspire others by your great achievements,’ I said, ‘And the next generation will build upon them.’

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*Please note that the Gutenberg portion of this conversation was made available as a free-standing story and published on the blog on August 10.  As a result, the Gutenberg portions have been removed from this larger “conversation”.  If you are interested in reading the full piece in its entirety, please contact me through the blog and I’m happy to send the full .pdf file.

Dr Charles Margerison is the President of The Amazing People Club, which has over 500 selected honorary members, including those mentioned in this article. All of the members have been interviewed and their stories appear in books and audios. For more information, visit www.amazingpeopleclub.com or www.myamazingpeople.com (blog).