Autopen

Here's a new technology that I hadn't heard of: the Autopen. I was just reading an article about it this week and immediately thought of this class. Donald Rumsfeld was using it to sign official condolence letters and Margaret Atwood is using something like it to remain home while autographing books in bookstores far from where she is. Her line of thinking is "The mind is the device that is thinking out the signature. The hand is the extension of the mind and the pen is the extention of the hand - so the pen is at two removes from the author's mind already. This thing is just another remove."

Woah, I couldn't believe this. "They" say that this won't take the authenticity out of the signature but I find this bizarre on many levels. The first one being that the excitement of waiting in line to get your book (or as I like baseball card!) signed and actually meeting that person face to face while they sign whatever it is you want, is an incredible feeling. Secondly, who's to say that the person is really writing it? You can just program this Autopen to write whatever it is you want so who's to say you have to be actually sitting there (supposively they are putting a TV in front of the desk or whatever that the Autopen is on so that the author can see and be seen...I doubt that will happen). Thirdly, if it becomes that much easier to get an autograph the value of that signature will decrease.

In the same article it tells about the LeapFrong company which is designing a pen much like the one mentioned above except that it's called FLY and will be markedted to young teenagers. "If you write a word in English on special FLY paper, the pen can announce its definition in an electronic voice or translate the word into Spanish. If you use the pen to draw a calculator and then touch the numbers and functions, you can add and multiply. If you draw a pinao keyboard, you can tap the keys and play Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy'" (Jerry Perez, LeapFrog President). Oh my GOODNESS! Are you kidding? What kind of effect is this going to have on academics, if this thing really is as intricate as I think it might be?

If you get the chance to pick up the March 7th issue of the New Yorker you'll see just what I'm talking about! There is a whole slue of other contraptions they describe that are in production. These are all things that have the potential to change writing as we know it. Another product is called "Dear Me Diary" and the diary TALKS BACK TO YOU! I can't imagine that! Girls write in their diaries because they seem like the one non-judgemental place they can express their feelings! I guess that's out the door! ha!