Had an interesting discussion with a good friend of mine last night. He was opining on how terrible it is that culture has moved away from physical media, such as printed books, newspapers, comic books, etc.

To some extent I agree with him. I very much enjoy sitting down with a physical book more than an ebook. However, as I mentioned to another nostrich earlier today, there are distinct advantages to digital literature, especially for reference materials. For instance, I have a full set of hard-cover Calvin Commentaries that was gifted to me early on as I pursued ministry. I have no room for them in my current rental. They are sitting in a box in my storage unit. However, I am constantly referencing the digital versions of this commentary series and many others that I would NEVER be able to justify buying to put on a bookshelf in my home.

That said, one criticism of digital literature struck home for me. He mentioned that the digital versions of many books appear to be redacted or altered. Digital media, especially when housed by centralized services such as Amazon, is not trustworthy, as it is trivial to modify in ways the author did not intend.

Then I blew his mind.

Project #Alexandria changes all this. When authors can cryptographically sign their publications, digital literature suddenly becomes MORE trustworthy than printed literature. You know that absolutely nothing about the publication has been altered since the author signed it. Not a single punctuation mark.

#Nostr changes everything.