#666: Mutablemedia

Novels and music tracks are sooo static…they will provide a very similar experience each time they are ‘consumed’ -it’s the continuation of printing press thinking that books are intended to be immutable.

Today’s invention makes all digital content potentially more interesting by having it change over time (just as Wikipedia does, for example). Small alterations to eg a story or a song would be made in the same way as automatic updates occur to one’s operating system software (especially if you are still stuck with some flavour of Windows). These variations could be generated automatically or by suggestions made by the online audience themselves, or by the original author as he or she decides they are no longer satisfied by their original version (I remember hearing Mark Knopfler saying that he would have changed all of ‘Brothers in Arms’ had he had the chance, post release).

All digital content on a computer (that was not write-protected by the user) could thus become potentially more surprising and therefore entertaining. Consumers could pay a tiny surcharge to receive such updates -or not to be bothered by requests to authorise their downloads.

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