KH COMMENTARY: The Day When Technology Takes Over the World

What with mobile phones becoming the size of a stick of gum, music devices you can take on the train, computers which fit in your back pocket, GPS systems which save you getting lost, fridges that order more milk when you start to run out, washing machines which can detect a stray red sock, wireless laptops, wireless headphones, wireless alarm clocks, cameras which can see into space, cameras which can see into the apartment next door, online banking, online shopping, online dating - you could argue that the day when technology took over the world came and went a long time ago.

While I'd like to think I am one of those balanced people who doesn't rely on technology like an addict relies on a hourly hit, I know that would be a lie. The first thing I do in the morning is check my emails, followed by my Facebook, followed by a quick trip to the Sydney Morning Herald website before putting together my blog post for the day. To my credit, I don't own an iPhone but even that won't save me. Like the other six billion people who wake up each morning reaching for the start button on their computer, I am inarguably technologically-reliant.

Obviously, being a blogger and born in Generation Y, this doesn't come as much of a shock. If anything, it's part of my DNA and therefore inescapable. But while I love learning about the latest gadgets, am saving up for a Macbook and have a list of blogs and websites I visit on a daily basis, I know there will come a day when technology changes my life completely. And it's not when a robotic cleaning lady starts making my bed in the morning.

I live in fear of the day when there are no longer paper back books or glossy magazines or newpaper print. When all copy and editorial content is accessed online, when I can no longer hold the product of my blood, sweat and tears in my very own hands. When books become spectacles in a muesum and people simply download Pride and Prejudice to their mobile phone and scroll while they're sitting on the train. When rather than flicking through page after glossy page of Vogue, I'll receive an email notification to download the new issue to my portable electronic publishing system.

Even as we speak, or as I write, developments in technology and science are dictating what literature and publishing will become. Electronic paper (or e-paper) will totally redefine how we read and access editorial material. Rather than spend hours in the library or the bookstore moving between the shelves, we will simply download the content to an e-paper device which mimics all the pages and appearance of book, but can be easily updated with new titles and content. Bookstores will become a place of the past, guttered and rebuilt into tech stores and Apple Mac distributors.

Despite all the devices and electronics I currently rely on to get through each 24 hour stretch, the day when technology takes over my world will be the day when I can no longer hunt through the bookstore looking for my next great read, or flick through a glossy while waiting in line at the supermarket (although by then, there'll probably be no such thing as supermarkets, just online ordering). Yes, there will come a time and it's not so far in the distance, when the 'information age' will change how we read literature forever.

I get asked why I buy books and magazines rather than loaning them from the library and saving myself a small fortune and the answer is because one day, like dinosaurs and hypercolour t-shirts, books will no longer exist.

And I want to hold on to them, in my own two hands, for as long as possible.