Hitting the Books: Meet Richard Akrwright, the world's first tech titan

You didn't actually believe all those founder's myths about tech billionaires like Bezos, Jobs and Musk pulling themselves up by their bootstraps from some suburban American garage, did you? In reality, our corporate kings have been running the same playbook since the 18th century when Lancashire's own Richard Arkwright wrote it. Arkwright is credited with developing a means of forming cotton fully into thread — technically he didn't actually invent or design the machine, but developed the overarching system in which it could be run at scale — and spinning that success into financial fortune. Never mind the fact that his 24-hour production lines were operated by boys as young as seven pulling 13-hour shifts.   In Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech — one of the best books I've read this year — LA Times tech reporter Brian Merchant lays bare the inhumane cost of capitalism wrought by the industrial revolution and celebrates the workers who stood against those first tides of automation: the Luddites. Hachette Book GroupExcerpted from Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant. Published by Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2023 by Brian Merchant. All rights reserved.The first tech titans were not building global information networks or commercial space rockets. They were making yarn and cloth. A lot of yarn, and a lot of cloth. Like our modern-day titans, they started out as entrepreneurs. But until... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2023-09-10 14:30:56 UTC ]
News tagged with: #company insists #independent contractors #endemic culture #automating cloth-making #founders aim #artificial intelligence

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Roald Dahl is the last thing we should worry about on World Book Day | Frank Cottrell-Boyce

More important than culture-war noise are the multiple threats to British children learning to love books of any kindBack in the days when everything took place on Zooms and Teams, I was part of a World Book Day event that was livestreamed from the set of the hit musical Matlida. The set is... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-03-02 11:42:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #roald dahl #love books #culture wars #worth noting #world book


Hitting the Books: NASA's Class 8 broke color barriers and glass ceilings alike

America's first astronauts from the 1960s were all pulled from the highest ranks of the nation's military. As such, NASA's first few classes tended to conform to a rather specific demographic theme — white, male, flattop haircut you could set a watch too. By the mid-70's however, the space... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-02-12 15:30:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #harpercollins


New Books Confront a World of Suffering

Christian and Buddhist book publishers see new demand for titles that address mental and physical problems that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-02-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The book world needs practical dreamers. Enter publisher-novelist Martin Riker

Micro-publisher Martin Riker has just published a novel of his own, 'The Guest Lecture,' that proves fiction can be experimental and rigorous at once. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-01-26 14:00:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book world


The last satirical novel from a tech-world alum? It's got a bug

Josh Riedel's debut novel 'Please Report Your Bug Here' tries to be both a sendup of circa-2010 Silicon Valley and a futuristic sci-fi cautionary tale. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-01-18 14:30:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #debut novel


Digital Book World: Startups Are Entering 'A New Age'

DBW's final day looked at a recent study of publishing industry startups and found that innovation takes all forms, from wildly successful ideas that took time to take off, like Audible, to cutting edge innovations, like blockchain book retailing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-18 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #recent study #innovation takes #publishing industry


Digital Book World: Startups Are Entering 'A New Age'

DBW's final day looked at a recent study of publishing industry startups and found that innovation takes all forms, from wildly successful ideas that took time to take off, like Audible, to cutting edge innovations, like blockchain book retailing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-18 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #recent study #innovation takes #publishing industry


Digital Book World 2023: The Future of AI Writing and Audio

According to multiple presenters at the Digital Book World conference, ChatGPT has potential to remake the way people write and streamline production and editing, while AI voice replication promises affordable audiobook adaptations. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ai writing #multiple presenters #people write #streamline production #audiobook #digital book #book world


Digital Book World 2023: The Future of AI Writing and Audio

According to multiple presenters at the Digital Book World conference, ChatGPT has potential to remake the way people write and streamline production and editing, while AI voice replication promises affordable audiobook adaptations. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ai writing #multiple presenters #people write #streamline production #audiobook #digital book #book world


Digital Book World Focuses on Data and Accessibility

Digital Book World, a conference focused on innovation in publishing, opened in New York City with a talk from the International Publishers Association about a two-year project focusing on data collection, as well as the need for more accessible books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-16 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #data collection #conference focused #accessible books #publishers association #digital book #book world


Digital Book World Focuses on Data and Accessibility

Digital Book World, a conference focused on innovation in publishing, opened in New York City with a talk from the International Publishers Association about a two-year project focusing on data collection, as well as the need for more accessible books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-16 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #data collection #conference focused #accessible books #publishers association #digital book #book world


10 New Historical Fiction Books Hitting the Shelves

Whether you love spy fiction, romances, sprawling sagas, or even horror, there’s a new historical fiction book for you on this list, like In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2022-12-21 11:36:00 UTC ]
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Wild Worlds: SFF Books By Unexpected Writers

Poets, literary fiction authors, and other unexpected writers are taking their shot at sci-fi and fantasy. Here are some of the best, including Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2022-12-20 11:35:00 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: AI is already reshaping air travel, will airports themselves be next?

The holiday travel season is once again upon us! It's the magical time of the year that combines standing in airport security lines with incrementally losing your mind as the hands of your watch perpetually tick closer to a boarding time that magically moved up 45 minutes since you left the... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-12-04 15:30:19 UTC ]
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Feds charge Russians linked to the 'world's largest' pirated e-book library

US law enforcement isn't just interested in shutting down video pirates. The feds have charged two Russian nationals, Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova, for allegedly running the pirate e-book repository Z-Library. The site was billed as the "world's largest library" and held over 11 million... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-11-17 21:44:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #russian nationals #copyright protections #november 3rd #copyright infringement #money laundering #wire fraud #digital book #authors guild #e-book


Meet the 2022 National Book Award Finalists

The winners of the 73rd National Book Awards—given every year in Young People’s Literature, Translation, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction—will be announced next week in a ceremony hosted by Padma Lakshmi at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City (and streamable online). Ahead of the festivities,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-09 09:53:33 UTC ]
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Sharjah World Book Capital Supports a Fire-Damaged Italian Bookstore

The Bologna bookstore, Giannino Stoppani, was damaged by fire in May. Sharjah World Book Capital has contributed €50,000 to assist. The post Sharjah World Book Capital Supports a Fire-Damaged Italian Bookstore appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-11-08 12:43:42 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: AI could help shrink America's gender wage gap

Women have faced gender-based discrimination in the workforce throughout history, denied employment in all but a handful of subservient roles, regularly ignored for promotions and pay raises — and rarely ever compensated at the same rates as their male peers. This long and storied socioeconomic... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-10-30 14:30:31 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: The early EVs that paved the way for GM's Ultium success

General Motors has been in business for more than a century, but in its 112 years, the company has never faced such challenges as it does in today's rapidly electrifying and automating industry. The assembly line jobs from Detroit's heyday have been replaced by legions of automated industrial... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-10-23 14:30:06 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: The women who made ENIAC more than a weapon

After Mary Sears and her team had revolutionized the field of oceanography, but before Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson helped put John Glenn into orbit, a cadre of women programmers working for the US government faced an impossible task: train ENIAC, the world's first ... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-10-16 14:30:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #clear path