MachineMachine /stream

There’s never been anything like the Internet for helping us find what we want. But when it comes to finding what we didn’t know we wanted, print is magic.

Back in the ’90s, I used to read a handmade magazine called 8-Track Mind. In every issue it ran something called “The Eight Noble Truths of the 8-Track Mind.” Truth No. 1 was, “State of the art is in the eye of the beholder.” No. 5 was, “ ‘New’ and ‘improved’ don’t necessarily mean the same thing.” And No. 8 was, “Innovation alone will not replace beauty.”

As I’ve wondered lately about the future of ink and paper, I often wanted to reread those truths. I don’t know why it surprised me to find them online, but I’m glad I did. It could have taken me hours to find my old copies of the magazine in the boxes in the basement.