On the Observational Epidemiology blog, Mark is trying to coin the word "ddulite." A ddulite is the opposite of a luddite, a person who prefers new tech to old tech even when the old tech is better--more functional.
My first thought is that the early-adopter community can spur innovation, and help make it ready for prime time. Early-adopters are the beta testers.
More importantly, who decides what is more functional -- or even how to define functionality? Hand-lettered books on vellum are more "functional" than books printed on paper, in that they last longer. But the printing press made books cheaper and more available, and changed the world. E-books are inherently ephemeral, but they are much more portable (especially if you have a smart-phone!). E-books, too, are changing the model for publication and delivery of books, newspapers and magazines. The same thing can be said for the vinyl records-CDs-MP3s continuum.
Of course, the versatility of both e-books and MP3s depends largely on the Internet, rather than on sneaker-nets. As an early-adopter of the Internet, I connected--via dial-up--to a Linux server and used a virtual terminal with a command-line interface. I remember the wealth of information available via highly-structured, but awkward, "Gopher" pages. I saw the Internet explode after teams at CERN and the NCSA developed the World-Wide Web and the Mosaic browser, respectively.
Thoughts on ddulites?
Hat tip: Andrew Gelman.
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