The primary media used by mankind to display the written word, that is, display abstract

symbols used by the creator/writer to convey meaning to the viewer/reader, doesn't

change very often. Depending upon how you define "written" symbology, for a period of
time, at least 50,000 years, perhaps much further back, even beyond the dawn of the
human species, drawings of symbols, erection of markers and what have you were etched
upon the face of the earth. Whether cave drawings of animals or stacks of stones used to
mark a trail, symbols were placed upon the earth's surface to illustrate some idea or other
that could be read by individuals other than the creator of the symbol. The surface of the
earth itself was the media.

At least ten thousand years ago, perhaps many tens of thousands beyond that, people
began to scratch out images and other symbols onto manufactured articles such as clay
tablets, crafted walls in public places, carved stones and so forth. These messages both
utilized a manufactured media and were, generally, used more sophisticated symbology
allowing a more complex and/or precise story or message to be conveyed to the reader.

Five of six thousand years ago, some societies began to develop forms of papyrus. The
papyrus was formed into scrolls on which symbols were drawn using some manufactured
stain or ink. Somewhat later, true paper was developed and used, first as scrolls then,
hundreds of years on, in a recognizable book form.

In the west, it was only around five hundred years ago that moveable type forced a
movement of the written word onto the modern book form. Books are now used to
convey messages in all the static forms of symbology known to man.

Around fifty years ago the written word and other forms of symbology began to be
created, stored, retrieved and read in digital forms using electronic devices. Of course,
some electronic forms of symbology had been around for many decades prior to this but,
for the most part, digital symbology recognizable to most literate humans began in the
late 1940's, early 1950's.

From this time line, admittedly a highly debatable timeline, two things are obvious. One,
in the entire history of the written word/symbol, only four or five changes in the primary
media of messaging has taken place. Two, the period of time between these shifts is
shrinking dramatically. These periods of time have gone from perhaps hundreds of
thousands of years between the advent of using the face of the earth to using
manufactured surfaces to lesser intervals between subsequent shifts. Perhaps, it took
another five to thirty thousand years to go from crude manufactured surfaces to papyrus
and paper. Perhaps it took yet another five to ten thousand years to get from paper and
ink entries by hand to the use of moveable type in a modern book format. Maybe another
five hundred years to move from the printed book to digital formats.

Of course, digital formatting is not yet the primary media for presenting the written word.
It may never be. However, in all likelihood, digital formats will very shortly be the
primary presentation format. In only a generation or two hence the printed book may go
the way of the clay tablet and the scroll.
Even so, the book will never go completely away. Just as mural graffiti keeps the media
of the cave painting alive and billboards are nothing more than modern versions of
ancient Egyptian wall writings, no form of symbolic media has ever fallen completely out
of use.

Chances are some form of digital media will become the primary media for everyday
transmission of written symbology, including written language. But, just as the book is
used to convey every form of human symbology, at least every form of stationary
symbology, digital formats are evolving that will make room for all kinds of, including
animated, symbology.

What the new vook (a proffered new word, not of my invention, incorporating the
concept of a traditional book that includes other media such as video and audio
messaging) will look like is not, at this point, known. It takes a while for the general
public to achieve literacy in new symbolic communications' techniques. Just as
ubiquitous human literacy is only a few centuries old it may be many, many years before
the general public is comfortable with the many possibilities of new literary forms and
formats.

One obvious opportunity that should not over tax the general reader of a digital book is to
make footnotes in nonfiction works, and other written works, immediately referable
through links to the cited source documents. This is a basic example of three-dimensional
literature. That is, allowing the reader to look into the creation of a work by exploring the
sources from which it springs. If a reader has access to a good library, this option is
already available to him or her by checking out the source documents and comparing
them to the way an author portrays these works in his work. Within a digital book, these
sources can and should be linked so immediate access is available to the reader. Indeed, I
cannot understand why such active links are not required in all scholarly work presented
for peer review today.

In fiction works achieving true three-dimensionality may be somewhat more

complicated. This additional complication is due, in part, to the fact that it can take so
many different forms. On the one hand, historical fiction can make use of active links
offering historical legitimacy to the reader who desires it. Such links would act in much
the same way as they would in a nonfiction work of history. Beyond that, layers of story
can be arranged within a digital book so that, in much the same way varying layers and
levels of an interactive game grow more complex as a player advances from level to
level, the story's layers can provide incremental complexity depending upon the
sophistication and tastes of the individual reader.

J. K. Rowling did something very much like this by increasing the literary complexity
and the social complexity of her stories, aging them along with the increased maturity of
her core readers. If a child began his or her engagement with the world of wizardry at the
age of ten, by the time the reader finished the final book when he or she was in the late
teens or early twenties, the maturity of the language and the story concepts and plots had
kept pace with the age, interests and tastes of the child.

Three-dimensional literature could be possible within a single book using layers of digital
print. Complexity of plot, concepts and characterizations can be matured within various
levels of the book offering different experiences to different readers, or the same reader
revisiting a work at a later age, using the same essential story line.

Yet another potential of third dimensional literature could be the full integration of more
than one media within the vook. Creators are now free to utilize the form of
communication best suited for a specific idea or message. If a scene is best
communicated as a video play, that can be done within a digital book and fully integrated
into the work. In much the same way as graphic novels use drawings as well as language
to convey a single message, within a digital vook still and animated images can be used
along with the written and spoken word to reinforce each other's conveyance of a single
message.

Of course, this mixing of media can be troublesome. In much the same way that an actor
breaking out in song during spoken dialog is frequently awkward, switching from video
to the written word and vice versa can also be very awkward. Never the less, the digital
vook format makes new synergistic creations possible if the creator possesses the talent
to pull it off.

Another potential form of third dimensional nonfiction is as simple as embedding

material that enhances the story in the body of the work through the use of links. Persons
writing new age literature may need to link to web sites that elaborate on the concepts
and beliefs of the characters within the story. Links to recipes, mathematical formula,
obscure philosophy, etc, can be embedded within the text. Such embellishments could be
used to add "flavor" to the personalities of characters within the story. Perhaps puzzles
either added as links or embedded within the language of the text that suggest links but
do not overtly offer them is yet another means of adding a third dimension to a nonfiction
work. If, as was done for Klingon in Star Trek the language in Avatar, a new language is
created in a work of science fiction, verbal translators can be embedded in the digital
format.

I do not know which, if any, of these third dimensional mechanisms authors will utilize in
the future. Certainly some of them, or others like them will be used. They will enrich
literature and, as they grow in popularity, they will accelerate the movement away from
printed books to digital formats.