Lightspeed Illuminati

In an unapologetically wistful article for the Baltimore Sun, Garrison Keillor envisioned a future where books spring up like wildflowers, unattended by the meticulous gardening skills of editors, and the democratization of publishing will lead to a vast wasteland of uninspired, pedestrian ebooks to be read only by friends and family. As much as I [...]

Blio, Ray Kurzweil’s free software designed to overcome page display shortcomings of other ebook formats, is a dark horse running in a race that’s been going on for some time. Nonetheless, the package shows some competitive promise in the heated market in which Kindle and iPad are setting the pace. Projected to be available to [...]

Traditional book publishers are very nervous—at least as nervous as recording industry executives were nearly a decade ago as Apple’s iTunes burst upon the scene and overturned conventional wisdom about who really controlled sales and distribution of songs. Amazon’s success with the Kindle was a friendly tap on the shoulder for publishing executives. Apple’s iPad [...]

Unlike bees and ants—with their near-miraculous ability to coordinate complex activities in a self-organizing way—humans don’t exhibit any discernible signs of swarm intelligence. In fact, as a species we often work against our long-term survival, launching wars for reasons that leave historians scratching their heads, polluting the air and water that keep us alive, and [...]