4 ms·

Singularity Proponent Ray Kurzweil Reinvents the Book, Again

12 points by ca98am79 17y ago

ryanwaggoner 17y ago
Another exercise in missing the point. I'm getting so tired of reading comparisons between tablets / netbooks and e-reader devices. Yes, I'm well aware that my Kindle is black and white, doesn't have a touch screen, doesn't handle video, has an incredibly slow refresh rate, etc, etc. And guess what? I don't give a fuck. I got my Kindle for exactly one thing: reading the written word. And for that purpose, it's incredibly well suited. Reading a computer screen for hours is not enjoyable for me, but I get lost reading my Kindle.
- gregwebs 17y ago
  Thanks for expressing your point of view. However, this isn't slashdot- you don't have to approach from a negative point of view, ask rhetorical questions, and answer them with swear words. If you just keep the sentences after the italicized swearing you would have a positive and more information dense comment.
  - sgrove 17y ago
    Well put.
  - ryanwaggoner 17y ago
    I find your premise that I should be positive rather odd. Isn't negativity sometimes warranted? Additionally, my goal when writing isn't to create more "information dense" comments. My goal is to communicate information, ideas, and emotions. Sometimes negativity, profanity, and rhetorical questions are my preferred methods to accomplish that goal.
- Jach 17y ago
  You seem to have an angrier version of my view toward cell phones. If I had a cell phone, I'd want one that just makes calls, and nothing else. That's not what others want, though, and in this case I look forward to a tablet PC as powerful as my desktop system in a few years, and I already do most of my reading anyway via computer and a PDF viewer or web browser.
- ghshephard 17y ago
  Well, not quite missing the Point. I have a Kindle, K2, and kindle for my iPhone. I've read about twenty books in the last two years, and have been pretty happy with the combination of iPhone (for night time, car, casual) and Kindle (Bright Sunlight, camping, desert) devices. But, The kindle/iPhone really are only good for light fiction. They are horrible for Scientific Texts, Math Texts, Anything with color, and reference manuals. I've been waiting for 18+ months for the MacTablet to come out, and, if something like Bilo is available with it's release, and manages to come up with a half decent/fast metaphor for random page turning (needed for a reference) - then it will be a hit. Though, I have a sneaking suspicion Apple might also have an interest in being the "Ebook Reader" of choice for the MacTablet...
  - carterschonwald 17y ago
    I've been very happy with the kindle dx for mathy reading when I"m teaching myself a new topic. That being said, you do have a good point that its not quite the right thing (as yet, though maybe the right abstraction would help) for lots of page flipping, eg when you're working through a problem and looking up information to help
    - ghshephard 17y ago
      Interesting - which math text did you find worked out OK on the DX? I tried reading "OS X Internals" (the only reference book I have with diagrams for the Kindle) on my D2 and the performance was so poor on all of the line drawings that I gave up after 5-10 pages. Any references to fast-performing Kindle books with diagrams appreciated.
Raphael 17y ago
Wow! It's almost as good as a PDF viewer.
- malloreon 17y ago
  Came here to post this: "how is this different than PDF?"
- m0th87 17y ago
  Just like how the iTunes Store is almost as good as an mp3 player? Apples != oranges.
  - three14 17y ago
    But here, reading the feature list makes it look exactly like a subset of Adobe Reader, with no advantages.
  - jrockway 17y ago
    The advantage of the iTunes Store is that it convinced the technology-hating music industry to allow people to buy music online. Amazon has already done that for the publishing industry.
philk 17y ago
I've never looked at a book and thought "wow, I wish I had video here". I have looked at a video and thought "I wish I had a transcript instead".
- ars 17y ago
  I have. Videos are sometimes very slow, and poor ways of giving information (talking heads). So I have wanted transcripts. And books can sometimes use videos to help demonstrate thing (although usually when such a capability exists, people tend to overuse it).
  - jrockway 17y ago
    You misread his second sentence.
    - ars 17y ago
      Oops. Sorry.
nwatson 17y ago
I live in San Mateo County and can already check out, along with other Northern California public library patrons, full color editions of a limited but hopefully growing selection of quite good books. The system uses Adobe Digital Editions software for display and DRM and replicates the library one-patron-checks-out-a-given-book-at-a-time model. The majority of the current catalog is unfortunately full of the long tail of crappy bodice-rippers but if you wade through there are some good books. I don't see Kurzweil's system adding anything other than irrelevant eye candy.
eagleal 17y ago
[...] Ray Kurzweil, a prolific inventor who is best known for his prediction that machine intelligence will surpass that of humans around 2045 [...] Today it's 2045 and the machines surpassed humans in intelligence. (or it's 2009 they 'actually' surpassed us). Am I missing a few decades here?
jrockway 17y ago
This reads like a press release. I like the screenshot that shows pretty pictures but completely unreadable text. The Kindle was successful because most books are just text, and it presents text pretty well. Not pretty well from a "typesetting is art" perspective, but pretty well from a "being able to read it for extended periods of time" perspective. Guess which one sells e-readers and e-books.
InclinedPlane 17y ago
Why is this always so hard for people to figure out? Netbooks, notebooks, and PCs use emissive displays that can be tiring to use for extended reading (because it's like staring into a flashlight) and are relatively low resolution (~120dpi) compared to print (300dpi is generally considered the minimum for acceptable text printing). E-ink is used by all of the major electronic book readers today because, despite its many other serious disadvantages, it leads to a more natural reading experience due to higher resolution (~170dpi) and a reflective display which is less tiring on the eyes. Say what you will about the limitations of e-ink (color, refresh rate, etc.) it's still a superior technology for reading books. Thankfully a lot of folks recognize that (the makers of the sony reader, amazon kindle, bn nook, etc. and their customers). A piece of software, no matter how well crafted, will never be able to bridge the hardware gap that exists between LCDs and e-ink.

12 points by ca98am79 17y ago

Another exercise in missing the point. I'm getting so tired of reading comparisons between tablets / netbooks and e-reader devices. Yes, I'm well aware that my Kindle is black and white, doesn't have a touch screen, doesn't handle video, has an incredibly slow refresh rate, etc, etc. And guess what? I don't give a fuck. I got my Kindle for exactly one thing: reading the written word. And for that purpose, it's incredibly well suited. Reading a computer screen for hours is not enjoyable for me, but I get lost reading my Kindle.

gregwebs 17y ago
Thanks for expressing your point of view. However, this isn't slashdot- you don't have to approach from a negative point of view, ask rhetorical questions, and answer them with swear words. If you just keep the sentences after the italicized swearing you would have a positive and more information dense comment.
- sgrove 17y ago
  Well put.
- ryanwaggoner 17y ago
  I find your premise that I should be positive rather odd. Isn't negativity sometimes warranted? Additionally, my goal when writing isn't to create more "information dense" comments. My goal is to communicate information, ideas, and emotions. Sometimes negativity, profanity, and rhetorical questions are my preferred methods to accomplish that goal.
Jach 17y ago
You seem to have an angrier version of my view toward cell phones. If I had a cell phone, I'd want one that just makes calls, and nothing else. That's not what others want, though, and in this case I look forward to a tablet PC as powerful as my desktop system in a few years, and I already do most of my reading anyway via computer and a PDF viewer or web browser.
ghshephard 17y ago
Well, not quite missing the Point. I have a Kindle, K2, and kindle for my iPhone. I've read about twenty books in the last two years, and have been pretty happy with the combination of iPhone (for night time, car, casual) and Kindle (Bright Sunlight, camping, desert) devices. But, The kindle/iPhone really are only good for light fiction. They are horrible for Scientific Texts, Math Texts, Anything with color, and reference manuals. I've been waiting for 18+ months for the MacTablet to come out, and, if something like Bilo is available with it's release, and manages to come up with a half decent/fast metaphor for random page turning (needed for a reference) - then it will be a hit. Though, I have a sneaking suspicion Apple might also have an interest in being the "Ebook Reader" of choice for the MacTablet...
- carterschonwald 17y ago
  I've been very happy with the kindle dx for mathy reading when I"m teaching myself a new topic. That being said, you do have a good point that its not quite the right thing (as yet, though maybe the right abstraction would help) for lots of page flipping, eg when you're working through a problem and looking up information to help
  - ghshephard 17y ago
    Interesting - which math text did you find worked out OK on the DX? I tried reading "OS X Internals" (the only reference book I have with diagrams for the Kindle) on my D2 and the performance was so poor on all of the line drawings that I gave up after 5-10 pages. Any references to fast-performing Kindle books with diagrams appreciated.

Raphael 17y ago

Wow! It's almost as good as a PDF viewer.

malloreon 17y ago
Came here to post this: "how is this different than PDF?"
m0th87 17y ago
Just like how the iTunes Store is almost as good as an mp3 player? Apples != oranges.
- three14 17y ago
  But here, reading the feature list makes it look exactly like a subset of Adobe Reader, with no advantages.
- jrockway 17y ago
  The advantage of the iTunes Store is that it convinced the technology-hating music industry to allow people to buy music online. Amazon has already done that for the publishing industry.

philk 17y ago

I've never looked at a book and thought "wow, I wish I had video here". I have looked at a video and thought "I wish I had a transcript instead".

ars 17y ago
I have. Videos are sometimes very slow, and poor ways of giving information (talking heads). So I have wanted transcripts. And books can sometimes use videos to help demonstrate thing (although usually when such a capability exists, people tend to overuse it).
- jrockway 17y ago
  You misread his second sentence.
  - ars 17y ago
    Oops. Sorry.

nwatson 17y ago

I live in San Mateo County and can already check out, along with other Northern California public library patrons, full color editions of a limited but hopefully growing selection of quite good books. The system uses Adobe Digital Editions software for display and DRM and replicates the library one-patron-checks-out-a-given-book-at-a-time model. The majority of the current catalog is unfortunately full of the long tail of crappy bodice-rippers but if you wade through there are some good books. I don't see Kurzweil's system adding anything other than irrelevant eye candy.

eagleal 17y ago

[...] Ray Kurzweil, a prolific inventor who is best known for his prediction that machine intelligence will surpass that of humans around 2045 [...] Today it's 2045 and the machines surpassed humans in intelligence. (or it's 2009 they 'actually' surpassed us). Am I missing a few decades here?

jrockway 17y ago

This reads like a press release. I like the screenshot that shows pretty pictures but completely unreadable text. The Kindle was successful because most books are just text, and it presents text pretty well. Not pretty well from a "typesetting is art" perspective, but pretty well from a "being able to read it for extended periods of time" perspective. Guess which one sells e-readers and e-books.

InclinedPlane 17y ago

Why is this always so hard for people to figure out? Netbooks, notebooks, and PCs use emissive displays that can be tiring to use for extended reading (because it's like staring into a flashlight) and are relatively low resolution (~120dpi) compared to print (300dpi is generally considered the minimum for acceptable text printing). E-ink is used by all of the major electronic book readers today because, despite its many other serious disadvantages, it leads to a more natural reading experience due to higher resolution (~170dpi) and a reflective display which is less tiring on the eyes. Say what you will about the limitations of e-ink (color, refresh rate, etc.) it's still a superior technology for reading books. Thankfully a lot of folks recognize that (the makers of the sony reader, amazon kindle, bn nook, etc. and their customers). A piece of software, no matter how well crafted, will never be able to bridge the hardware gap that exists between LCDs and e-ink.