Paper tiger roars again

It is quite natural for Damien Keown (THES, February 9 "Caxton: is he dead or merely resting?") to remark, as have other reviewers of the book, on the irony that a "subversive proposal" for paperless publishing that originally appeared in electronic form should now appear in print. But is this not to be expected in transitions between media, such as radio and television? Surely even its most zealous advocate would have needed a preternatural faith in the communicative power of Bell's new invention to rely exclusively on the phone for reaching the unconverted.

Stevan Harnad

Director, cognitive sciences centre

Department of psychology

University of Southampton