New Note v3

Nothing says, “We know what we’re doing” like an automated retrieval system such as the one at the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library in the University of Chicago. When a student wants to read a book, she orders the book online, then waits while a robotised crane swoops to the appropriate shelf and fetches a box containing several volumes, including the one the student requires. The box is delivered to the librarian who picks it out of this box and hands it to the student. This vast bibliographic jukebox is almost a wrong-headed vision, a steampunk joke that envisions a world in which mechanical technology has advanced far ahead of information technology. Like someone asked to design a toaster coming up with an anthropomorphic robot whose multi-jointed arms enable it to put slices of bread on the fire, turn them over, and remove them when they’re done. Cf. Video: inflatable pilot in Airplane.

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