By Rèlme Divingu
Translated from the French with the help of the Harrap’s Shorter Dictionary.
In the near future.
“Hello, dear viewers! Today, we are happy to welcome on our daily literary show, ‘Words of the Future,’ the Gabonese computer scientist Paul Urinda.
“Mr Urinda is a professor at the Libreville Institute of Technology (LIT) and creator of the much-debated software “TYPEWRITER”. As you know, the latter intends to help writers in their narrative creative process.
“Good evening, professor.”
“Good evening.”
“So, what is TYPEWRITER?”
“TYPEWRITER is a computer-aided writing package (CAWP).”
“What exactly do you mean?”
“That is to say it can write some parts of the story by itself. But don’t worry; TYPEWRITER cannot compose a tale on its own. TYPEWRITER is not able to build the storyline, it merely follows the instructions given by the author. Human beings remain at the control of the creative process. Actually, this software barely interferes with the writing process and style, in other words, the ways taken by the novelist to tell the story. In a way, TYPEWRITER is the 3D printer of the writer.”
“But don’t you think that we find the fine touch of the writer more in the ways used to tell the story than in its structure?”
“I think that the writer is everywhere. In the storyline, as well as in the style.”
“Then, can we say that when a writer uses your software he grants a part of his capacity to create to the technology?”
“Yes, so to speak. The novelist and the software are sharing the narrative creative process together.”
“Software proposing to help us in our intellectual tasks are becoming more and more numerous. Should we be worried about that?”
“No, I don’t think so. Since the invention of the calculator to the computer, and nowadays to Bio-Integrated Software, human beings have always sought the means to improve and facilitate their cognitive processes. That seems to be a feature of human nature.”
“Do you think that the mention ‘written with the help of TYPEWRITER’ needs to be affixed on books written with your software?”
“Not necessarily. But, perhaps soon we will attend live writing sessions like we attend music concerts. It will completely change our manner of consuming literature!”
“Thank you, professor, for agreeing to our interview.”
“Thanks to you for inviting me.”
“Dear viewers, your literary show “Words of the Future” has now ended. Please do not forget that you can get TYPEWRITER by connecting your cerebral implant into one of the numerous downloading terminals of our sponsor, the Next Read Library.
“See you tomorrow!”
END
