2050 Forecast: Libraries Offer 'Experience Rooms' for Vintage Smell of Books

​Where are we headed?
I’ve always loved libraries, but you have to wonder what their role will be in the future. I do know that technology, especially the iPhone, is changing peoples’ behavior. Attention spans are going down, are people going to read books anymore?

The fastest growing medium in publishing is audio books. You don’t need a library, just download a book to your phone and listen.

Cultural historians say that the novel was the art form of the 19th century, in the twentieth century it was the movie. What’s it going to be for the 21st century? How about interactive multi-media as viewed on a Virtual Reality headset, like the Apple Vision Pro? That technology is in its infancy, it will be more accepted when the headset is scaled down from the current size of a scuba diving mask to a pair of eyeglasses.

What movies and libraries have in common is: you have to get out of your house and go there. Will this sense of community be lost forever when you can put on your virtual reality specs and watch anything? I hope not.

Here's one forecast: "2050 Forecast: Libraries Offer 'Experience Rooms' for Vintage Smell of Books, Audiobooks Now Narrated by Robot Morgan Freemans, and E-books? They're Projected Straight to Your Retinas... No Glasses Required!
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Meanwhile, be on the lookout for The Circle of Awareness. Coming Soon.