By Edward Nawotka

Tyler Brûlé

“So, in 2020, we’ll all arrive in one-piece jersey romper suits woven out of pulped hardback books and synthetic slippers made from discarded Kindle e-readers.”

Thus begins Tyler Brûlé’s satirical vision of what the world might look like in another ten years if the iPad and other touch screen devices become dominant — and we don’t find a way to properly compensate our content creators (be them authors or editors).

He continues, “The world became so dazzled by the technology and the devices that delivered the content that the information eventually disappeared,” adding, “The technology players fancied themselves as media barons but didn’t want to invest in the information and the media barons never wanted to blow the whistle on all of this technology, so they just rolled over and their businesses eventually shriveled up and expired.”

It’s a quirky, cautionary tale about the information and publishing industries.