"I simply don't think books will become obsolete. We will still have them for records, decoration, recreation, what have you, but won't be used as profusely as they were say 100 years ago." - That's what I was saying exactly. As it is, for myself in the last 10 years technology has made a big impact on the way I get information as well as a lot of other people. I used to read magazines and have magazine subscriptions, but now all that information I can get online, and more up to date. I used to read the newspaper, but I can now just log on to (local newspaper's website) if I want to know the local news, read classifieds, or check a stock quote. At one time I would have had to trek to the library to research a topic I was interested, now, the library is always at home, I log on to the internet to find out what I need to know. If I don't know the meaning of a word, or want to look up various related words, I can also do that online or with software. The only real books with pages and covers that I read, are fictional novels, literary classics and poetry, and non-fictional information written by a specific author that I can't otherwise find online. You see just in ten years, an average individual like myself due to these changes in technology has been able to reduce the consumption of printed literature by about 75%. Like I was saying before, it may come, that no NEW books will be printed with paper and covers, rather they will be downloadable via a wireless internet to something like that digital paper, and when you want to read another dickens novel, you'll just use a stylus or speak it to the device and it will retrieve the novel you want from the air. The standard books will not disappear though, people will keep them, and there will probably be a publisher that will still print them for people who are nostalgic, but that publisher will be in a minority, since many will find that beaming books to digital paper is a lot more cost effective and profitable.

"Kids have what is called Leap Pad. It is an interactive book that helps them read. You change the disk, put a different book in the base and point to anything on the book and the computer will read it, give you a sound effect, or explain what is happening." - Yes, this is correct, this is a good learning tool for children. It will probably make kids able to read earlier than before. Kids like games, and games make them smarter.

"Over the years studies have proven that some of the decline in our eyesight is due to reading. Our eyes weren't made to focus on tiny letters in a dimly lit room. I think they are trying what they can to improve the quality of our eyesight in the future." - Well, actually this statement is shortsighted (pun intentional). Making digital books does nothing to improve people's ability to see. With technologies like Glasses, Contact Lenses, and Lasik Surgery, any deterioration in eyesight can now be corrected. In the future such genetic defects as the predisposition to near or farsightedness will be discovered prior to birth and corrected before the child is conceived so that he or she will live a better life.

"My point was simply that our future loves to read and what they are reaching for is books not computers." - Well you are both correct and wrong at the same time. Many children in school and at home and adults at work and at home to a certain age readily use computers throughout all the industrialized nations on the planet, and by the next 20 years it is unlikely that any culture will lack computers since the cost of producing them has plummeted. However the printed word will not vanish in the short term, it will merely be accessible to anyone on the planet via their computer, reading tablet, or digital paper.

"They use computers to play games but even some parents have barred video games from their households and many homes don't have the latest in technology even though they can well afford it." - Playing games is only one function of a computer. There are many other things that can be done on a home PC and if those people you mention are not willing to use a computer, then they are putting themselves and their children at an intellectual disadvantage in this modern society. Video games are a form of entertainment and a new kind of digital artform as well. At one point in time, a video game, was just that, a game, however with the improvements in computer technology better video games mean more realistic circumstances, videographics and cinematics, characters that rival real actors, and diverse and creative storylines that can surpass what is seen in a 2 hour movie. Children's minds are stimulated in many ways that you may not realize while playing video games. Some of these games targeted for the younger age group involve decision making and puzzle solving, as well as promote spatial reasoning skills. It works in a similar fashion that playing an instrument and learning music promotes mathematical ability. Those parents who "barred" video games as you put it, are basically ignorant to what it is that they are condemning. Some are just psychologically apprehensive about things that seem complicated or mysterious, and thus they shun something that they do not fully understand or are willing to try for themselves.

"Video games steal the imagination and what our generation produced was a bunch of creatively challenged brain dull twits running around spouting off computer lingo." - This is a very ignorant and foolish statement, (name omitted), representative of what would seem to be your lack of knowledge in this area as well as a innate fear of things that are difficult to understand. As a matter of fact, fantastic worlds and new adventures set the imagination ablaze. It's those same kids who played video games during the 80's that are today creating movies like, "The Matrix" and "Spiderman" and are at the very cutting edge of digital cinematography and filmmaking. Furthermore, any child who can operate a computer to the extent of being able to speak, "The Lingo" as you put it, is quite intelligent and likely to become someone productive in life like an engineer or a software developer rather than a crack addict or a gigolo.

"The article didn't prove anything but the fact that the electronic paper was bendable. Our eyes are still required to blend the images together which is strain on our eyes and causes migraines and sickness. Heres the thing, while it is totally possible that the world could come to be computer run and have computer books factoring in time to develop the product, marketing it, and getting it at a reasonable price where every household can afford one, I don't foresee it happening in the next 50 years." - The article actually proves that digital paper can be made, and that through a wireless internet connection or data feed from a PC you could read a digital newspaper on the bus just like the sloppy messy one and save all that paper. I would recommend watching the movie, "The Minority Report." It does take place in the future, but all the technology you see in that film is derived from consultation with some of the best minds at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and various professors and people at the forefront of technological development. Ahh, I don't get migraines when I read, never have so that doesn't make sense unless there is something already wrong with your eyes and get you migraines when you read. I can read a computer screen for 12 hours straight, no headaches, and I can read a book for the same amount, and same thing no headaches. As far as development and marketing goes, 23 years ago, no one ever would have thought that computers would be small enough to carry let alone owned by billions of people. 15 years ago, no one would have said that a cell phone would be smaller than a pack of cigarettes, work anywhere in the world, and be carried by just about anyone on the street. What was once the domain of the wealthy is now commonplace amongst society. 10 years ago, when Al Gore was spouting off about the "Information Superhighway" few people would guessed that today it would be as ubiquitous as electricity and that such a wellspring of knowledge and information was at anyone's fingertips. All of these things, are only examples of products and ideas that have changed our lives and how we live, so pigeonholing digital books and postponing them for 50 years is like saying, "Man will never fly" and "People can't go to the moon."

"My belief is that Jesus will come way before then and even if he hasn't, I will be too old to care about technology. It may even come later in which case I'm not going to care a lick what shape the world is in or what they are doing because I'm going to be in heaven having a much better time." - If Jesus was going to come to Earth he would have done so already, there have been far darker almost Armageddon periods in human history where millions of people were killed, tortured, and destroyed, than now. Even if he did come, what would he do, take away everyone's computers, cellphones, and TV's, tell people to stop thinking for themselves, make kids not go to school and learn new things, stop astronomers from looking at the stars, crash the International Space Station, make people stay in churches and wait to get raptured to heaven, while he has this big invisible battle with "Satan" and then people live in some spirit world where they don't think they just float around mindlessly as drones or slaves under the visage of a Christian God? Or a worse fate, they are sent to suffer for eternity because they weren't Christian or they wanted to be individuals and think for themselves? I shudder at the thought of something as awful as "Jesus coming" happening. You know, not everyone on this planet thinks that you go to heaven when you die, billions of people believe that you may come back again to keep trying to reach perfection, or attain enlightenment.

You see (name ommitted), you really need to look at a far larger image of things. As far as reading goes, you should continue to do it, and learn so much more, don't limit yourself to reading the Bible and saying that this is how everything works, because in reality it's only a very tiny small interpretation of the world. There are so many ways to gain knowledge in this world, and to deny yourself the ability to read into other methods of thinking, you are committing intellectual suicide and making yourself a slave to conformity and the control mechanism. When you define your existence with a very narrow view of things you condemn yourself to ignorance and an incomplete life. I strive to attain wisdom through knowledge, and I will never give up and say, I'm done, that's all there is, because there is so much more. The universe is vast, and we as humans, have just begun our journey, these years we live in now, are great times of transition, a time between the nascent past where there were many mysteries and unexplainable things, and a time when people will again manifest the destiny of exploration that has been written into the collective mindset of intelligent humans.