Commentary on technologies of reading, writing, research, and, generally, knowledge. As these technologies change and develop, what do we lose, what do we gain, what is (fundamentally or trivially) altered? And, not least, what’s fun?
By: Alan Jacobs
August 19, 2009
I don't know what to think about the Google Books Settlement, though since it affects me, I really ought to have a position. The Author’s Guild is strongly for it. The William Morris Agency is strongly against it. Professors at the University of California accept the general outlines but suggest some changes. What “may be...
August 19, 2009
This story has been around for a while, but it’s a New Atlantis kind of thing — cf. Ari Schulman’s fine essay on “Why Minds Are Not Like Computers” — so: Deena Skolnick Weisberg (along with some colleagues) has been doing some really interesting work lately on the way people — especially readers of newspapers and magazines...
August 19, 2009
Hmmm. Response to my earlier post on my self-announced candidacy for Apple’s Board of Directors has been . . . I don't want to say “lukewarm,” but — well, choose your own term. I’m turning my attentions elsewhere. I just learned today that the notoriously touchy Alain de Botton has just been named...
August 17, 2009
August 14, 2009
From Automata, which I learned about from Ministry of Type, which I learned about from Urge of the Letter, which I learned about from Snarkmarket. I don't remember where I learned about Snarkmarket. The important point is that all of those links lead you to smart posts which, in turn, link to other smart posts. Giving y'all some...
August 14, 2009
Now that Eric Schmidt of Google has resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors, there’s a good deal of speculation about his possible replacement. I would like to nominate myself. Yes. I would be an excellent choice. It’s true that most members of the board — all but one, in fact — are CEOs of other companies,...
August 14, 2009
So the BBC wants you to vote for the Nation’s Favourite Poet. Or it wants some people to vote, anyway — I’m a little confused because I’m not sure what “nation” the good ol’ Beeb has in mind. England? Great Britain? The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? Or perhaps something...
August 13, 2009
Last week I finally got around to reading Tom Standage’s The Victorian Internet, his history of the telegraph. One of Standage’s major themes is the widespread belief, in the early days of the telegraph, that the technology itself would somehow usher in a New Age of international peace and cooperation. After all, said one...
August 12, 2009
Charlie Stross: As for the intellectual property, I try not to get too worked up about it. There’s a lot of people angsting about piracy and copying of stuff on the Internet, publishers who are very, very worried about the whole idea of ebook piracy. I like to get a little bit of perspective on it by remembering that back before...
August 12, 2009
David Ulin has a problem: Sometime late last year — I don't remember when, exactly — I noticed I was having trouble sitting down to read. That's a problem if you do what I do, but it's an even bigger problem if you're the kind of person I am. Since I discovered reading, I've always been surrounded by...