I recall a related trope in sci-fi literature involving this in-universe, usually to show "superior races" as such through their capacity for speed reading (and speed memorization, comprehension, and mental cross-referencing, unrelated as those are in real life). In at least two books (titles and authors escape me at the moment), a master race stayed that way by consolidating all written material (in electronically readable form) in publicly accessible and mostly unmonitored libraries, and ensuring the only manufactured readers happen to scroll text automatically and too quickly for naturally inferior creatures like humans to read.
For obvious reasons, use of this dropped off around the time the VCR started to become mainstream. If we've already got the trope, maybe we could include a link to it in the description. It was the first thing I thought of upon seeing the title.
I recall a related trope in sci-fi literature involving this in-universe, usually to show "superior races" as such through their capacity for speed reading (and speed memorization, comprehension, and mental cross-referencing, unrelated as those are in real life). In at least two books (titles and authors escape me at the moment), a master race stayed that way by consolidating all written material (in electronically readable form) in publicly accessible and mostly unmonitored libraries, and ensuring the only manufactured readers happen to scroll text automatically and too quickly for naturally inferior creatures like humans to read.
For obvious reasons, use of this dropped off around the time the VCR started to become mainstream. If we've already got the trope, maybe we could include a link to it in the description. It was the first thing I thought of upon seeing the title.