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Sci-fi writer and physicist Robert Forward had access to a mainframe computer running UNIX text editor TECO, which gave him considerably greater capabilities he used to write a 160k word novel. Technical capabilities were still a bottleneck on length/complexity of novels
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Douglas Adams was one of the writers most associated with computers, and he became a collector and advocate for them early on. He foreshadowed that artificial intelligence wasn’t around the corner, and that computers would be used primarily as media tablets
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Jack Vance depended heavily on his computer to keep writing as he lost his eyesight, with custom hardware and software we would later call adaptive technology. This foreshadowed accessibility as a key driver of innovation
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Some writers didn’t adopt word processors until much later, such as Ursula K Guia and Octavia Butler. But the shift was inexorable
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Ignorance of computers could also be a literary asset. William Gibson wrote Neuromancer on a typewriter because he couldn’t afford a computer, and when he finally got one it demystified a lot of what computers could do
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But he was incredibly prescient that personal computers, once networked, would form a virtual unified universe he dubbed cyberspace
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Gibbons later worked with Bruce Sterling on The Difference Engine (1990), which ushered in steampunk as a genre. They developed a completely new way of working uniquely enabled by their matching Apple II computers, sampling and borrowing and reworking outside sources
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It was a surprise to many that writers seemed to be adopting personal computers at a faster rate than scientists. Especially sci-fi writers. I think this is due to the level of imagination required to see their usefulness at that time
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Interestingly, it was the less glorified and more populist sci-fi writers who adopted word processing sooner, because they were less preoccupied with “bastardizing the craft” than literary elites
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Early accounts struggled to articulate what these new devices were, including the term “TV Typewriter” prominently in advertisements such as this one for the Homebrew Computer Club
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Replying to
Fits my priors. Genre fiction early adopted the web and ebooks too. Literary types are the ones still attached to paper books. Scrivener (the name is revealing)does a good job catering to literary conceits in an online era. I use it despite those pretensions rather than because.
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I feel like there are a ton of gems in this thread for you. Nexus of computing, writing, & sci-fi feels rich for the kind of thinking you do. There’s some theorizing & model building needed in this area I think. Or at least I would love some to help with digital notes advocacy😂
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Replying to
Also direct interest in document-technology history retained from my time at Xerox which included one deadpooled product in the space 🙂 Reproduction and iteration technology is interestingly coupled to editing technology via proofing/correction processes.
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