Makers
Perry and Lester invent things—seashell robots that make toast, Boogie Woogie Elmo dolls that drive cars. They also invent entirely new economic systems, like the “New Work,” a New Deal for the technological era. Barefoot bankers cross the nation, microinvesting in high-tech communal mini-startups like Perry and Lester’s. Together, they transform the country, and Andrea Fleeks, a journo-turned-blogger, is there to document it. Then it slides into collapse. The New Work bust puts the dot.combomb to shame. Perry and Lester build a network of interactive rides in abandoned Wal-Marts across the land. As their rides, which commemorate the New Work’s glory days, gain in popularity, a rogue Disney executive grows jealous, and convinces the police that Perry and Lester’s 3D printers are being used to run off AK-47s.
zanne's keyboard.
She picked it up. It looked like a keychain laser-pointer, or maybe a novelty light-saber.
"Switch it on, Suzanne, please, and shine it, oh, on that wall there." Kettlewell pointed at the upholstered retractable wall that divided the hotel ballroom into two functional spaces.
Suzanne twisted the end and pointed it. A crisp rectangle of green laser-light lit up the wall.
"Now, watch this," Kettlewell said.
NOW WATCH THIS
The words materialized in the middle of the rectangle on the distant wall.
"Testing one two three," Kettlewell said.
TESTING ONE TWO THREE
"Donde esta el bano?"
WHERE IS THE BATHROOM
"What is it?" said Suzanne. Her hand wobbled a little and the distant letters danced.
WHAT IS IT
"This is a new artifact designed and executed by five previously out-of-work engineers in Athens, Georgia. They've mated a tiny Linux box with some speaker-independent continuous speech recognition software, a f
