Category: words

“‘A Japanese A.I. Wrote a Novel, Almost Wins Literary Award,’ one typical headline read. [Another] worried that ‘no occupation is safe’ if an algorithm could compete in such a contest. Look a little closer, however, and this story isn’t about the rise of the machines – it’s a lesson on the limitations of contemporary A.I. technology.”

“With these 10 writers, we will investigate our culture through the conversations that books anchor, in deep dives and in real time. We will explore the mysteries of reading and writing; consider the achievements, acknowledged and under-acknowledged, of the writers who have come before; question the roles of race, heritage, class and gender in what we read; take on the vagaries of the publishing industry, and more.”

“The BBC have just done a survey of library services in which they have found that 8000 library jobs have gone in the last five years and 340 libraries have been closed. On the face of it, that’s bad news. More signs of the pressure “austerity” is putting on council services? Actually no, not in this case. It’s a reflection of our habits.”

“Researchers found that introverts were more likely than extraverts to rate people as poor potential housemates if their spelling or grammar was bad. There were other findings – agreeable people, perhaps unsurprisingly, were easygoing when it came to grammos. Conscientious people tended to see typos as a problem.”

“Inkitt is marketed as ‘the world’s first data-driven publisher’. The company has built an artificially intelligent algorithm that analyses users’ reading patterns to predict future bestsellers. Once a future bestseller is found, Inkitt works with publishing houses to get these novels to print.”

“The word ‘jawn’ is unlike any other English word. In fact, according to the experts that I spoke to, it’s unlike any other word in any other language. It is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for inanimate objects, abstract concepts, events, places, individual people, and groups of people. It is a completely acceptable statement in Philadelphia to ask someone to ‘remember to bring that jawn to the jawn.'”

“It’s so difficult for computers because translation doesn’t—or shouldn’t—involve simply translating words, sentences or paragraphs. Rather, it’s about translating meaning. And in order to infer meaning from a specific utterance, humans have to interpret a multitude of elements at the same time.”

“Over the years, libraries have fined patrons for not bringing back books and offered no-questions-asked return periods. They’ve published the names of book scofflaws in local newspapers. They’ve paid personal calls on people who hold onto books past their due dates, and even sicced the police on particularly recalcitrant readers. And they still don’t really know how to get their books back.”

“‘It is a peculiarity of capitalists and the bourgeoisie to think that we workers have no culture,’ says the novelist, whose many tattoos include one of Karl Marx on his left arm.”

“Everything is a choice that seems like it could make the whole house of cards fall down — unless you don’t live in a web of doubt. But I write in a dark room of doubt.”