longpen

the sci fi geek in me can't help but think this is really cool, but the fanboy geek in me, who wants to babble incoherently at visiting authors, thinks it's a bad idea:

The bizarre, futuristic device would not be out of place in one of Margaret Atwood's sci-fi novels. But next month the Booker Prize-winning writer will unveil a machine she has invented which means authors will never have to meet their adoring public again.

Ms Atwood, the Canadian author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin, has created a machine that will allow her - without leaving the comfort of her home - to autograph the pages of her books while she is in another continent.

...

Ms Atwood, 66, is to launch the device - which has been seen by only a select few at secret testings - at the London Book Fair a fortnight from today, where publishers and authors from around the world will be given a demonstration. The writer will be in Canada but will create what is being billed as the world's first transatlantic autograph.

A video screen will link Ms Atwood with the public, allowing them to speak to her. Then, as she signs a personal message at one end, a robot arm instantly replicates the strokes in a copy of the book at the other.

besides, there are real issues whether an autograph written by a robot arm really is a real autograph. even if the arm mimics the author's movements exactly, it's still a mechanical reproduction. it's just an extremely good mechanical reproduction.

(via cursor)