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When the Process Becomes the Machine
By: John F GroomWhen the Process Becomes the MachineAI and the Reinvention of Professional WorkFor much of modern history, becoming a professional meant learning a process. A patent lawyer learned ho...
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Technology Built the City. The City Built Technology.
By: John F GroomFor most of human history, cities were small. Humans began forming settlements that we would recognize as urban thousands of years ago. Jericho was occupied by roughly 9000 BCE, and c...
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The Jetpack, the Segway, the Scooter, and the Litter Box: What Technology Is Actually For
By: John F GroomTechnology is often judged by how difficult it was to create. Artificial intelligence seems important because it is extraordinarily sophisticated. A jetpack is impressive because keep...
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The Litter Box and the Future: Technology Does Not Have to Change the World
By: John F GroomWhen we talk about technology, particularly now, we tend to talk about enormous things. Artificial intelligence may transform how humans create knowledge, make decisions, diagnose dis...
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Nuclear Weapons, Brothers, and the Things Technology Doesn’t Change
By: John F GroomIn October 1962, humanity confronted a situation that had never existed before. Nuclear weapons were less than two decades old. The first atomic bomb had been detonated in 1945, and b...
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The Tools Change. The Human Problems Persist.
By: John F GroomWhat Doesn’t Change in a World of AIWhen we think about history, we naturally notice change. An American farmer in 1800 lived in a world without electricity, automobiles, airplanes, t...
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You Don’t Have to Become an AI Engineer
By: John F GroomWhat Actually Happens When Technology Eliminates WorkDiscussions about artificial intelligence and employment frequently contain a hidden assumption: AI will eliminate existing jobs,...
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The Vanishing Farmer: What 200 Years of Agricultural Labor Can Teach Us About AI
By: John F Groom One of the great fears surrounding artificial intelligence is straightforward: what happens to people when machines can do the work people currently do? We don't know. But we have co...
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The Knowledge Is There. Why Doesn’t It Reach Us?
By: John F GroomHuman beings have a peculiar relationship with knowledge. We are extraordinarily good at accumulating it and surprisingly poor at making sure that the person who needs a particular pi...
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From NBN to Kindle: How One Small Publisher Lived Through the Transformation of Book Distribution
By: John F GroomThe technological transformation of an industry can look obvious in retrospect. It rarely does while you are living through it. My own experience publishing books spans several distin...
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