Environmentally-sound Ebooks!
- - April 1st, 2010
Orbit is delighted, excited and not a little proud to announce the development of the world’s first 100% biodegradable ebook. As you all know (Bob), the problem with the current crop of ebooks is that the electrons that make up the work have a carbon cost. Certainly, the environmental impact of ebooks is much lower than for traditional publishing, but it is a finite and measurable amount.
An electron, yesterday
Not anymore! Orbit’s proprietary new ‘Brigadoon’ e-formatting allows for a 100% carbon-free reading experience. By exposing the ebook file to a short burst of Cherenkov Radiation upon delivery, the electrons composing the file actually decay into lower-energy electrons and tachyons after the first reading. The new, low-powered electrons return to the environment at a net carbon cost of practically zero, while the tachyons, as is their nature, travel backwards in time to replace the ebook file that has just disappeared during the decay of the electrons that formed it.
To explain in layman’s terms: the electrons return to the environment and the ebook effectively travels backwards in time, reinventing itself before each reading causes it to cease to exist. With reference to Clarke’s Third Law, we hope you’ll forgive us a triumphant ‘Hey, presto!’
All of Orbit’s April titles will be available in Brigadoon as well as epub format from all good replicators.
ria
April 1, 2010
at 4:49 am
Woo! Time travel.
“Brigadoon” – only available to buy on April 1st each year!
glenda larke
April 1, 2010
at 6:10 am
And what happens if you read the book backwards? Or if you are one of those folk who peek at the ending first?
Darren Nash
April 1, 2010
at 11:09 am
If you read the book backwards, Glenda, you’ll get to the start and find that you can remember the sequel but not the book itself. In the case of those people who peek at the ending first, the ebook remains unscathed but the reader disappears in a cloud of elementary particles. Honest.