The Human use of human indexers

Abstract

Every time a new invention becomes available, people worry lest they lose their employment. Undoubtedly, the invention of the wheel threw sledge-makers out of work (though we have no record of any singularly Luddite activity that far back); spinning jennies idled spinning wheel manufacturers (and users); the advent of the internal combustion engine destroyed the business of buggy-whip makers, just as the spread of railways reduced the number of stirrup cups and yards of ale served up to coachmen; Alexander Graham Bell may well be said to have been responsible for the extinction of the carrier pigeon. To bring the problem closer to home, the introduction of automatic typesetting has oc casioned newspaper compositors' strikes all over America. In the long run, virtually all inventions have worked to the good of man, though those involved in the short run have undoubtedly suffered.