Since you seem to be fixated on the papyrus, which was never meant to be an exact time comparison, how about another one. Janeway and her books are like a 2016 cook preferring to cook over an open hearth, as they did in the 18th century, rather than use a modern kitchen with modern implements.
And, of course what I said about how print books will be in the 24th century is a supposition, but it's a logical one, as I can't imagine late 20th and early 21st century culture and attitudes will be frozen and brought forward 300 years unchanged.
Yes's, billions of print books have been published, but I can't imagine them all surviving into the 24th century. Books, especially paperbacks, were never meant to survive that long. Indeed, I still have some college hardbound textbooks from when I started college 40 years ago that are in sad shape and paperbacks that have fallen apart altogether. I imagine some luxury, leather bound books meant to be heirlooms might survive that long with careful infrequent handling, but the average book from now, no.
There is also the environmental issue, too. I imagine future generations will seek to take better care of the Earth, which will mean cutting down fewer trees to make paper, and to re-forest certain areas. This means fewer print books.
What I think is that the writers simply goofed here and just didn't anticipate the invention of readers less than ten years after the end of Voyager. Nor did their use of the pads anticipate how we use readers and tablets now. One example is the episode where Icheb goes to stay with his parents and Seven of Nine gives him several pads, indicating that they are several books on a variety of subjects, so it was one book=one pad, instead of all the books being on one pad. Similarly, when the logs of Seven's parents were downloaded, it produced a boxful of pads, instead of them all going into one pad. The writers treated the pads as if they corresponded to the floppy disks of 20 years ago, which indeed held very limited amounts of data.
And, of course what I said about how print books will be in the 24th century is a supposition, but it's a logical one, as I can't imagine late 20th and early 21st century culture and attitudes will be frozen and brought forward 300 years unchanged.
Yes's, billions of print books have been published, but I can't imagine them all surviving into the 24th century. Books, especially paperbacks, were never meant to survive that long. Indeed, I still have some college hardbound textbooks from when I started college 40 years ago that are in sad shape and paperbacks that have fallen apart altogether. I imagine some luxury, leather bound books meant to be heirlooms might survive that long with careful infrequent handling, but the average book from now, no.
There is also the environmental issue, too. I imagine future generations will seek to take better care of the Earth, which will mean cutting down fewer trees to make paper, and to re-forest certain areas. This means fewer print books.
What I think is that the writers simply goofed here and just didn't anticipate the invention of readers less than ten years after the end of Voyager. Nor did their use of the pads anticipate how we use readers and tablets now. One example is the episode where Icheb goes to stay with his parents and Seven of Nine gives him several pads, indicating that they are several books on a variety of subjects, so it was one book=one pad, instead of all the books being on one pad. Similarly, when the logs of Seven's parents were downloaded, it produced a boxful of pads, instead of them all going into one pad. The writers treated the pads as if they corresponded to the floppy disks of 20 years ago, which indeed held very limited amounts of data.
