Algorithmic Content and Publishing: Yet Another Alarm Bell? Or Just a Big Meh?

On Facebook today, the great Chris Offutt referenced a Forbes blog post today. His joking comment was, along the lines of, “But how will we get signed books?”

The blog post itself brashly proclaims “How Algorithmically Created Content will Transform Publishing.” It’s an interesting look at the way that free, public source materials can be compiled together into useful texts.

I’m not advocating for the technology. But neither am I getting worked up about it, either. And I don’t know what Offutt’s opinions are either, so I’m not speaking for him.

Every day seems to bring another ominous article about the death of books, the death of writing, we’re all going to be replaced by robots, and so forth. And some days I get so pissed that I can’t sleep at night. But other days, I just bury my head in my novel-in-progress and say, “To hell with it.” And today is one of the latter. I just can’t seem to summon the energy to get upset about this algorithmic content technology. Not today at least.

But what do you think?