World domination and the end of the printed word

You’ve made it when your brand name becomes interchangable with an object.

These things take time. Meaning accrues over decades. Vacuum cleaners become hoovers.

Does anyone buy an_ MP3 player_ these days? MP3 player is quaint; the kind of term I use because I’m nearly 40 years old and don’t bother with technology. iPod. Ipod.

Amazon may achieve proprietary eponymism even quicker than Apple with the Kindle (partly because e–reader is a tad uncomfortable). But that won’t mean the end of the paper book, even if Brewster Kahle’s project is the stuff of novels.

There’s a bunker involved somewhere.