Archive for May, 2018
EVERY TIME a new communication technology emerges, people lose no time predicting the demise of an existing one. The printing press was going to ruin the human mind. Motion pictures, radio, and TV were all going to eliminate reading. TV and, later, streaming were going to do in movie theaters. Digital media threatens the death […]
“Luddite” sounds like an indestructible substance over which wars are fought in the Marvel Universe. The word originally referred to workers in early 19th century Nottinghamshire, England, who protested low wages and poor working conditions by destroying their employers’ machines. Today, Luddite has morphed into a reference to people who oppose technological advances. Contemporary Luddite-type voices arise with […]
I have empathy for writers of futuristic science fiction. It’s almost impossible to correctly envision the future. You may have noticed, for instance, that 2001 came and went without the discovery of an obelisk on the moon. But last week, Google’s I/O Conference apparently conjured up visions of 2001: A Space Odyssey’s rogue robot Hal for a few […]
There’s nothing quite so entertaining as an incompetent bank robber. Alas, as digital banking marches forward, we may see fewer and fewer of them. Before the art all but disappears, here are some favorite tales of mishaps and ineptitude. • Never underestimate a teller. In Dallas, a would-be robber demanded a teller hand over the […]