Mar 20, 2012 19:45
Amazon.com has long been a leader when it comes to the use of incorporating cutting-edge technology into its business model. The trend continues with its purchase of robot-maker Kiva Systems and its plans to incorporate robots into its warehouse operations.
Books are on their way to becoming obsolete due to e-books and authors might be next if automated publishing catches on. At least, so goes one narrative. Personally? I'm skeptical. Much as a Kindle or a tablet can be useful tools, these devices aren't the same as thumbing through the pages of a real book and the preservation of electronic text poses at least as many challenges as the preservation of paper. As far as automated publishing, the resulting books are not well-written and the usefulness of the information can be questionable. Although automation may work well for some materials which are basically produced by doing the same thing over and over (just the sort of thing computers were designed for), I still see an important role for the human expert in turning raw information and data into something that's actually useful.
They're building a new east-west underground (subway) link under London. But this new tunnel network won't be built by armies of human construction workers. Instead, it will be built by giant tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) which will operate 24 hours a day and create about 100 meters of new tunnels each week.
technology and society,
articles,
linketies,
technology