Scribal job security
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From a couple of days ago, Karl Bode's opinion about near-term AI workforce effects.
A relevant fable from a century ago.
Emily Bender's list of things that "AI" means, and an essay expanding on the list.
Of course, printing, computation, and the internet are steps forward from scribal monks…
bks said,
July 11, 2026 @ 7:11 am
A programmer rants about the cognitive effects of AI, in a humorous and profane way:
https://youtu.be/Jn0F6tLLoaQ?si=fLOvY85Xu_0ro_hR
AntC said,
July 12, 2026 @ 2:43 am
printing, computation, and the internet are steps forward …
I blame the ballpoint pen.
At my first school we had actual inkwells and dip-in pens and blotting paper and ink monitors. Then we advanced to fountain pens, but still I ended up with ink splashes on my white school shirt. (Anybody remember cartridge pens?)
I am not going to wax poetic about how getting hands-on made me put more thought and appreciation into penmanship: it was miserable. I was frequently kept back after class to improve my 'hand'.
Richard Hershberger said,
July 12, 2026 @ 5:46 am
@AntC: Did you dip Peggy Sue's pigtails in the inkwell to show you liked her?
Philip Taylor said,
July 12, 2026 @ 8:42 am
"Anybody remember cartridge pens?" — What do you mean remember, Ant ? I use one to this day, for any correspondence that requires a handwritten letter (condolences, commiserations, congratulations, etc). With the appropriate colour ink from the superb range offered by Messrs Herbin, of course.
HTI said,
July 12, 2026 @ 11:12 pm
I’m still on the ol’ clay tablet and reed pen. Old habits die hard
Olaf Zimmermann said,
July 13, 2026 @ 6:27 am
Now we are getting botty-trained.
KeithB said,
July 13, 2026 @ 7:07 am
And then there is Arthur Clarke's "Nine Billion Names of God," where the lack of job security by using the computer was the whole point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Billion_Names_of_God
Robot Therapist said,
July 14, 2026 @ 3:48 am
I used to have a bottle of Quink. Never used the inkwell built into the desk.
At that time, ballpoint pens were terrible and constantly made blobs of ink, so they caused as much shirt-staining as the fountain pen.
Philip Taylor said,
July 14, 2026 @ 4:07 am
"ballpoint pens were terrible and constantly made blobs of ink" — IMHO, they are still terrible, by design. A pen that does not allow the user to vary the stroke width depending on the part of the glyph that he/she is seeking to create is as much use as a bicycle that will only go dead-ahead, not allowing the cyclist to turn even a fraction left or right. For handwritten stuff that does not require the use of a fountain pen, I use a good-quality felt tip, which allows the user at least a degree of control.
Benjamin E. Orsatti said,
July 14, 2026 @ 6:40 am
Greetings, Philip,
No doubt sour grapes from a left-hander who isn't allowed anywhere _near_ a fountain pen, but, where, apart from certain varieties of shorthand, would varying pen stroke width be needful?
— B.
Philip Taylor said,
July 14, 2026 @ 9:42 am
If one cares about one's handwriting, Benjamin (and speaking as a fellow left-hander, who nonetheless uses a fountain pen on a regular basis), and if one is used to writing with a fountain pen, then angling the nib so as to achieve thin strokes for some parts of a glyph and wider strokes for other parts becomes second nature, and finding that a ball-point pen is incapable of this is an intensely frustrating experience. Which is why I gave up trying to use them decades ago.
Scott P. said,
July 14, 2026 @ 11:48 am
I prefer pencils. :-)
Philip Taylor said,
July 15, 2026 @ 6:55 am
Yes, sharpened to a chisel point, Scott, pencils are infinitely preferable to ball-point pens …
Michael Watts said,
July 15, 2026 @ 9:35 am
I never use pencils. They make an unpleasant scraping sound when you write with them.
Philip Taylor said,
July 15, 2026 @ 1:36 pm
Try something softer than a 9H, Michael …
Olaf Zimmermann said,
July 16, 2026 @ 4:01 am
… and try paper as a writing surface …
'Chel said,
July 16, 2026 @ 3:05 pm
… and try using your hand to write things …
Alvin said,
July 18, 2026 @ 8:07 am
This is unrelated to the post itself, but the Atom feed seems to have been broken for a few weeks. It fails W3C validation at:
> line 480, column 211: XML parsing error: :480:211: not well-formed (invalid token)
> "… on large language models (LLMs) and LLM�powered agentic workflows. Howe …"