As with the printing press and the dotcom boom, initial frenzy and speculation obscures the lasting legacy of new technologies“Innovation,” wrote the economist William Janeway in his seminal book Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy, “begins with discovery and culminates in speculation.” That just about sums up 2023. The discovery was AI (as represented by ChatGPT), and the speculative bubble is what we have now, in which huge public corporations launch products that are known to “hallucinate” (yes, that’s now a technical term relating to large language models), and spend money like it’s going out of fashion on the kit needed to make even bigger ones. As I write, I see a report that next year Microsoft plans to buy 150,000 Nvidia chips – at $30,000 (£24,000) a pop. It’s a kind of madness. But when looked at it through the Janeway lens, ’twas ever thus.“The innovations that have repeatedly transformed the architecture of the market economy,” he writes, “from canals to the internet, have required massive investments to construct networks whose value in use could not be imagined at the outset of deployment.” Or, to put it more crudely, what we retrospectively regard as examples of technological progress have mostly come about through outbreaks of irrational exuberance that involved colossal waste, bankrupted investors and caused social turmoil. Bubbles, in other words. In recent times, think of the dotcom boom of the late 1990s. Or in earlier times, of the US railway... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-12-30 16:00:37 UTC ]
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A debate over how much publishers care about independent booksellers broke out during yesterday... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Long, editorial director for digital at Pan Macmillan, is moving to the newly created role... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twitter has often been cited as anathema to long-form journalism, but one of the social giant's co-founders thinks the two concepts can work together. Medium, a content production and delivery platform started by Twitter and Blogger co-founder Ev Williams, has acquired the sci-tech long-form... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2013-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer Thom Donovan says he was sent a cease-and-desist letter by Yoko Ono's lawyers after he published a graphic novel about the life of John Lennon that included some rarely seen photos. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray has signed a new book from Ben Schott. Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing houses are Germany's intellectual backbone. For many years, they created a culture of literary abundance and generated healthy profits. But in the age of Amazon, ebooks and self-publishing, they could be facing demise. Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2013-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random House US has adjusted its proposed terms for authors with Random House's new digital... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Smith & Son has seen a like-for-like sales increase of 14.3% in the year 2011-12, led by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of books for children surged in the UK last week, as schools broke for the spring half-term... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When the iPad is seemingly tailor-made for books of all kinds, you'd think Audible would leap on the opportunity to produce an optimized audiobook app -- it wasn't quite so eager, as customers have since discovered. Apple tablet owners won't have to perpetually lean on the stock music app for... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Guardian called it: "Camilla Long’s comprehensive shredding of Rachel Cusk’s memoir of her divorce, Aftermath has won her the Hatchet Job of the Year award.” Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Alma Books, Constable & Robinson and John Blake Publishing have been shortlisted for the IPG... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Evan S. Connell, novelist, poet, short story writer, and bestselling author of Son of the Morning Star, Mrs. Bridge, Mr. Bridge, Deus lo Volt! and The White Lantern, among other books, died on January 9 at his home in Santa Fe, N.M., following several years of declining health. He was 88. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-01-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Lewis has reported a 45% increase in sales of e-readers over the Christmas period, compared... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Agard has been given the royal seal of approval as the winner of Her Majesty’s Gold... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children's publisher Nosy Crow has partnered with John Lewis to create a picture book of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray is planning to expand its non-fiction publishing output and has appointed Georgina... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Haymarket Network are launching an app of The John Lennon Letters... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of children's books soared last week as schools broke for the first holiday of the new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It was the talk of the London Book Fair. Then it was the talk of the summer. Then it became the book news story of the year. The Fifty Shades series—an originally self-published erotica written as Twilight fan fiction—was too new a phenomenon in April, when the London Book Fair was underway, to... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-09-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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