Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 40, No. 106.
Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
Date: 2026-07-28 08:49:26+00:00
From: maurizio lana <maurizio.lana@uniupo.it>
Subject: Re: [Humanist] 40.103: augmenting, not replacing
hi Willard,
you ask "how long does anything last online?"
"anything" is too wide for me, to try to answer. as you discuss of
publications, i think that digital publications (to be online a
publication must be in digital form)
last as long as they enter a true personal library (which every on can
build e.g. with Zotero).
until the publications are (stay) online they are similar to the liminal
spaces of AI system: the online publications are a cloud of
possibilities for research, for deepening the thought, for discovering
something that no other person could discover.
but until something of this type doesn't happen, they exist like seeds
waiting to germinate.
if we think of the publications like seeds, then we should also arrive
to something similar to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Maurizio
Il 28/07/26 10:20, Humanist ha scritto:
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 40, No. 103.
> Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
> Hosted by DH-Cologne
> www.dhhumanist.org
> Submit to:humanist@dhhumanist.org
>
>
>
>
> Date: 2026-07-28 08:10:20+00:00
> From: Willard McCarty<willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
> Subject: augmenting, not replacing
>
> Considering how your work might be published, what role(s) would you
> assign to the digital medium at what stages? Let's assume the work,
> including the working out of it, would benefit authors and readers if
> circulated.
>
> In the natural sciences and engineering, where quick publication of
> results is needed and commonplace, there is little need for the codex
> book in print, I take it, except perhaps in edited collections such as
> Springer et al. produce at pace. Are not the humanities and nearby
> social sciences different in this respect? Nevertheless under the
> influence of the former fields, one may feel pressure to give up on the
> printed book. The cost of books and the stately pace at which
> publication of them proceeds add to this pressure, especially on
> early-career scholars.
>
> What are we to do? It seems to me in my roles as both author and editor
> that for the philosophical-historical disciplines the printed codex
> remains essential in most cases. There the digital medium is essential
> for searching, note-taking, discussing, exchanging papers and so on. The
> codex, however, is to my mind for serious reading. It establishes the
> conditions under which we want to be read--not our 'results' but our
> ideas and arguments. The online medium augments, not replaces, I say.
>
> This does not make the problem for early-career scholars any easier.
> That's an institutional and political problem to be addressed. But it
> preserves a space for serious written thought that in many cases--and is
> certainly our goal, I'd think--lasts for centuries. I ask, how long does
> anything last online?
>
> Comments?
>
> Best,
> WM
> --
> Willard McCarty,
> Professor em., King's College London;
> www.mccarty.org.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------------
citazioni come briganti ai bordi della strada
che balzano fuori armati
e strappano l’assenso all’ozioso viandante
walter benjamin, strada a senso unico
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maurizio Lana
Università del Piemonte Orientale
Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici
Piazza Roma 36 - 13100 Vercelli
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