This is brilliant and terrifying, and, dare I say it, wrong. And it’s brought to you by a group of book-lovers…
In 1769, Hungarian nobleman Wolfgang von Kempelen astonished Europe by building a mechanical chess-playing automaton that defeated nearly every opponent it faced. A life-sized wooden mannequin, adorned with a fur-trimmed robe and a turban, Kempelen’s “Turk” was seated behind a cabinet and toured Europe confounding such brilliant challengers as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte. To persuade skeptical audiences, Kempelen would slide open the cabinet’s doors to reveal the intricate set of gears, cogs and springs that powered his invention. He convinced them that he had built a machine that made decisions using artificial intelligence. What they did not know was the secret behind the Mechanical Turk: a chess master cleverly concealed inside.
Today, we build complex software applications based on the things computers do well, such as storing and retrieving large amounts of information or rapidly performing calculations. However, humans still significantly outperform the most powerful computers at completing such simple tasks as identifying objects in photographs—something children can do even before they learn to speak.
When we think of interfaces between human beings and computers, we usually assume that the human being is the one requesting that a task be completed, and the computer is completing the task and providing the results. What if this process were reversed and a computer program could ask a human being to perform a task and return the results? What if it could coordinate many human beings to perform a task?
Amazon Mechanical Turk provides a web services API for computers to integrate “artificial, artificial intelligence” directly into their processing by making requests of humans. Developers use the Amazon Mechanical Turk web services API to submit tasks to the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site, approve completed tasks, and incorporate the answers into their software applications. To the application, the transaction looks very much like any remote procedure call: the application sends the request, and the service returns the results. In reality, a network of humans fuels this artificial, artificial intelligence by coming to the web site, searching for and completing tasks, and receiving payment for their work.
The Courier-Mail: After the Code, the wait [29oct05]:
Before Da Vinci, Brown and his wife were self-promoters desperate to sell books that had barely made a ripple. In the past two years, they have gone into hiding, overwhelmed by the attention and the $62 million Brown has earned in royalties in United States sales alone.Brown always knew he wanted to be a success. He just wasn’t sure what he wanted to be a success at.
I think this is a shrewd analysis. At the same time, one must give Brown credit for being an extremely clever and successful self-promoter.
The Courier-Mail: After the Code, the wait [29oct05]:
Part of the lunacy that has surrounded the Da Vinci Code phenomenon is that while Brown fans are waiting, they can read at least two other books about the book they are waiting for – The Solomon Key and Beyond: Unauthorised Dan Brown Update by W. Frederick Zimmerman and Da Vinci in America: Unlocking the Secrets of Dan Brown’s The Solomon Key by Greg Taylor.A third book, Unlocking the Solomon Key, reportedly will be ready for release within two weeks of The Solomon Key being published.
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 3, 2005–Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) today announced two innovative programs to benefit readers, authors and publishers. Building on its successful Search Inside the Book technology, which allows customers to search the complete interior text of hundreds of thousands of books, the company is currently developing two new programs that will enable customers to purchase online access to any page, section, or chapter of a book, as well as the book in its entirety.The first program, Amazon Pages, will “un-bundle” the physical-world experience of buying and reading a book so that customers can simply and inexpensively purchase and read online just the pages they need. For example, an entrepreneur interested in marketing his or her business could purchase the relevant chapters from several best-selling business books.
The second program, Amazon Upgrade, will allow customers to “upgrade” their purchase of a physical book on Amazon.com to include complete online access. For example, a software developer who buys a Java programming book will not only get the physical book delivered to his or her home, but will also get 24×7 Web access to the complete interior text of the book. Buy a cookbook and you will not only have it on your shelf, but also be able to access it anywhere via the Web.
PUblishers Marketplace reports
Former Daily News senior editor Russ Hoyle’s GOING TO WAR, an investigation of the White House’s role in shaping intelligence reporting in the months before the start of the Iraq War and will focus on the intricacies of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) fiasco, to Thomas Dunne of Thomas Dunne Books, for publication in spring 2007, by Michael Carlisle at Inkwell Management
Looks to me as if it’s just about time for the bubble on Iraq/WMD books to burst. This is such old news already …
… that is acquired by clicking a button like this.
Chris Bray is a sergeant in the U.S. Army. He is currently on extended leave from the PhD program in American history at UCLA.
And he has written an excellent essay reviewing a collection of Iraq memoirs.
It’s really quite striking how Google and Amazon are setting the agenda for book-lovers here in 2005.
As a publisher I’m not sure this is a net positive for me — I do worry about revenue being cannibalized.
In a race to become the iTunes of the publishing world, Amazon.com and Google are both developing systems to allow consumers to purchase online access to any page, section or chapter of a book. These programs would combine their already available systems of searching books online with a commercial component that could revolutionize the way that people read books.
The idea is to do for books what Apple has done for music, allowing readers to buy and download parts of individual books for their own use through their computers rather than trek to a store or receive them by mail. Consumers could purchase a single recipe from a cookbook, for example, or a chapter on rebuilding a car engine from a repair manual.
The initiatives are already setting off a tug of war among publishers and the potential vendors over who will do business with whom and how to split the proceeds. Random House, the biggest American publisher, proposed a micropayment model yesterday in which readers would be charged about 5 cents a page, with 4 cents of that going to the publisher to be shared with the author. The fact that Random House has already developed such a model indicates that it supports the concept, and that other publishers are likely to follow.
The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels
Nothing by Wodehouse? For shame.
