A former Marine print-photojournalist, State Department Public Diplomacy Officer & U.S. Air Force Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist
New Literacy: Eulogy
for Gutenberg
I
haven’t yet seen any news reports or research or thought leadership books by
techies about the impact of smart speakers on the fundamental structure of our
social fabric. I think Alexa is a technical revolution as radical as
Gutenberg’s press.
In
1436, Johaness Gutenberg, a German goldsmith, created the printing
press. Before then, all texts had to be laboriously copied by hand.
Corresponding this critical new technology, born in Eisleben, Germany, in
1483, Martin Luther disrupted religion by translating the
Bible and removing control from the hands of the clergy. Since that time, the
ability to read text on paper has largely determined economic potential and
earning capability in the job market.
Right
now, in 2018, there remain some 20% of the world’s population who are
illiterate. Others born or who later became blind or severely sight impaired
have also been limited in their economic potential due to their inability to
access information.
Alexa
and other technologies like her, Siri and Google Home, but more importantly,
the computing power that has made text to speech and speech to text capability
possible will make reading letters on paper altogether irrelevant with regard
to accessing information.
I read
a book by Microsoft MVP Ben Clothier who explained how to integrate Access and
Sharepoint nearly 10 years ago. He seemed at that time to be the only person in
the world who knew how to do what we wanted to do with our information. I
reached out to him on the web and he said he worked for a consulting firm. I
reached out to them and contracted him to help our project. I also contracted
two American sign language translators because this brilliant expert was
severely hearing impaired and had very limited sight. I offered to pick him up
from his home on my way to work, because I learned from a tour at the
Lighthouse for the Blind that getting to work every day is one of the biggest
challenges in a car culture like ours for sight-impaired professions.
Centuries
or even decades ago, Ben would never have been access all the knowledge that
put him at the top of his specialty. While limited options were available, like
braille, few of the worlds books were available in braille. Because of the
digital revolution, information is now available to almost anyone and the final
wall is coming down with voice user interface.
At the
end of this holiday season, some 50% of American homes will have a smart
speaker. Amazon’s website likens it to Star Trek ship communication technology.
Ease of use has never been more fluid. No manual required. Even my two-year old
can activate Alexa, although she has yet to correctly format a request to get a
response. Alexa’s ring turns blue, delighting my toddler when she says,
“Alexa.” Amazon just announced Alexa is available in Mexico.
Once this
technology is available worldwide and once the world is online, Gutenberg will
finally be truly just a note in the history books. The world he created of text
will no longer determine one individual’s economic potential by serving as the
only path to knowledge and information and ultimately professional expertise.
I have
long loved books, and I will miss Gutenberg dearly. Still I can see that Alexa
joins the Internet as the most powerful flattening forces of my lifetime.
