Over on the Popular Mechanics website, a fantastic roundup article appeared a few weeks back featuring 110 Predictions  For the Next 110 Years, organized by decade.

This being Popular Mechanics, the majority of the entries are, of course, science- and tech-based. There are some interesting predictions regarding impossible-sounding futuristic apps the PM team suspects we may encounter at some point over the next decade or ten.

But two of the entries are specifically e-reading themed, and we quite like the sound of them both. So we’ve reproduced them for you here.

And by the way, if you have any e-reading or digital publishing predictions of your own that you’d like to add, we’d like to hear them. Please post them in the comments section below.

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2012—2022

Scrolls will replace tablets: Researchers have already reproduced words and images on thin plastic digital displays. If they want those displays to compete with the iPad, they need to fine-tune the color and refine the screens so you can put your feet up and watch LeBron throw down on YouTube.

2023—2062

All 130 million books on the planet will be digitized: In 2010 Google planned to complete the job by decade’s end, but as of March it still had 110 million tomes to go, so we’re adding wiggle room. You might use the time to shop for storage, because given today’s options and the average size of an e-book (3 MB), you’ll need 124 3-terabyte drives to carry the library of humanity with you. It won’t fit into a backpack, but it’s small enough to schlep in a hockey bag.

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