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    Shimmer, don't Shake: How Publishing Can Embrace AI
    Shimmer, don't Shake: How Publishing Can Embrace AI
    Shimmer, don't Shake: How Publishing Can Embrace AI
    Ebook136 pages1 hour

    Shimmer, don't Shake: How Publishing Can Embrace AI

    By Nadim Sadek

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    Discover the future of publishing in Shimmer, don't Shake: How Publishing can embrace AI

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMensch Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2025
    ISBN9781912914821
    Author

    Nadim Sadek

    Nadim Sadek is Founder and CEO of Shimmr AI, producing anddeploying advertising for long-tail (back list) assets. An AI-nativebusiness, it focuses on publishing, making under-monetised titlesmore productive, improving publishers' profitability, giving authorsgreater reach, and bringing fulfilling books to psychologically-matched readers.Previously, Nadim was Founder and CEO of ProQuo AI, anAI-driven brand management platform, which proved productmarketfit and created a new sector in marketing technology.Nadim was also Founder and CEO of Inish Turk Beg, a whiskey,food and music business he built on an island he acquired off theWest coast of Ireland. He won a global Mobius award for creating'the best new brand'. Earlier, he used his degree in Psychology tofound and lead what became the world's largest qualitative marketresearch company, Sadek Wynberg Research. This was sold toWPP, and he led two of their global networks, Millward BrownQualitative Network and Research International.Nadim manages an artist, Shaefri, signed by Warner, andpresents Boss Bikes Club, a Youtube motorcycle review channel.He is half-Irish, half-Egyptian, raised in Africa, Asia and Europe.He lives in London.

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      Shimmer, don't Shake - Nadim Sadek

      Prologue

      I’m neither a technical expert in Publishing nor in Artificial Intelligence. My focus is on the intersection between them. I’ve invested time, energy and my career in understanding how people feel and think, interact with things in the world, relate to brands and other artefacts of human invention, and for the last five years or so, built businesses based on AI. I hold myself out not as prophet nor soothsayer. In this book, I have enjoyed intertwining the histories of Publishing and AI, seeking to understand the most constructive way in which one form of human genius — literature — can benefit from another of its brain-children, machine-learning.

      1

      A Brief History of

      Publishing Innovations

      This book is chiefly about artificial intelligence (AI). I want to explore how AI intersects with book publishing. I thought I’d start by looking at how technology has played a part in publishing throughout history, and therefore to be able to contextualise, and give proportion to, the advent of AI and its impact on this long-established industry.

      Publishing has evolved dramatically since the earliest days of humanity passing down information through oral traditions and cave paintings. This chapter provides a bird’s-eye view of those major innovations that have shaped publishing over centuries leading up to the present day. Subsequently, I’ll write a parallel narrative of AI’s development, eventually pulling the two histories together.

      I find it interesting to look for context around major publishing innovations so I also briefly highlight relevant societal, economic, and political events that were happening concurrently. I’m not a historian and I’m sure many are more expert in this, but I hope that my efforts are in some form enlightening or stimulating. For example, when discussing the advent of the printing press in the 15th century, I noticed how this new technology coincided with the greater trade and urbanisation of that era which fuelled demand for books. Cultural trends at different times also intersected with developments in publishing, such as the pulp fiction boom in the early 20th century. Let me linger for a moment on this, chosen rather randomly, to illustrate how technology affects publishing.

      The pulp fiction boom was a period of great popularity for magazines in the United States from the 1920s to the 1950s. Pulp magazines were cheaply-produced and typically featured lurid covers and sensational stories. They were often sold at newsstands and drugstores, and were a popular form of entertainment for people of all ages.

      The boom was driven by a number of factors, including the rise of mass literacy, growth of the middle class, and development of new printing technologies. Pulp magazines were also a relatively inexpensive way for publishers to produce and distribute fiction, which made them a popular option for both readers and publishers.

      It came to an end in the 1950s as the rise of television and other forms of entertainment began to compete for readers’ attention.

      The real point is that one technology ushered in an era of specific creativity and publishing, and another technology prompted its demise. It’s a repetitive cycle and worth remembering, as one looks at how AI may now also have a great effect on publishing.

      My goal is also to give readers a glimpse into the wider historical setting surrounding each transformation in publishing to better understand the life and times. I’m only sketching my way through millennia, for the sake of brevity and to keep to the main narrative around innovation and ultimately AI, but it is fascinating how technology in publishing intersects with wider life. Publishing has always evolved in tandem with the broader forces shaping society and it seems to me that it will remain so, though in much evolved forms.

      The Beginnings of Recorded Communication

      The evidence is that humans have felt the urge to record stories and information since ancient times. Cave paintings dating back over 40,000 years represent some of the earliest examples of our ancestors communicating symbolically. Oral storytelling also played a central role in early societies, passing down knowledge through generations verbally.

      The development of writing systems marked a major transformation around 4000 BC. Sumerians in Mesopotamia began using wedge-shaped symbols pressed into clay tablets, an early form of writing called cuneiform. This enabled literature, business transactions, and other records to be set down permanently for the first time. Imagine the first receipts being on tablets — and then recall that your coffee this morning could well have produced a receipt on another tablet — in some ways, we’ve barely changed!

      Cuneiform and hieroglyphic writing also expanded administrative and commercial activity, as goods and transactions could be catalogued. Rule of law advanced with written legal codes like Hammurabi’s regulating society. It’s easier to govern when you can point at things written down as the law.

      Some of the earliest writings in cuneiform from Mesopotamia recorded important literature like the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest known works of literature dating back over 4,000 years. Cuneiform was also used to write down daily records, contracts, laws, and other governmental proclamations. For instance, the Code of Hammurabi, which established one of the earliest sets of codified laws in human history, was inscribed on a stone tablet in cuneiform. These examples illustrate how early writing systems allowed societies to document their most important cultural and civic knowledge in permanent records for the first time. We were beginning to live by reference to artefacts, not spoken words and memories.

      Hieroglyphics, an elaborate writing system using pictorial symbols, also emerged around 3200 BC in ancient Egypt (as I’m half-Egyptian, I’ve always found this ‘innovation’ especially fascinating). This was used for monument inscriptions, correspondence, record keeping, and rituals. Scrolls made of papyrus reeds served as an early flexible format for written works. So, the technology was changing — no longer clay tablets, now we were using bendier ones, easier and cheaper to produce. We were also seeing expendability for the first time — these papyrus documents were not seen as eternally durable.

      Hieroglyphics were used to record a wide range of subjects that provide insights into ancient Egyptian society and culture. These included historical records, religious and mythological texts, mathematical treatises, medical manuals, astronomical observations, poetry, and fictional tales. Ancient Egyptian mathematical texts covered areas like fractions, geometry, and algebra. The longer papyrus scrolls, we can now discern, were an early form of books. Did Egyptians ‘invent’ the book, a series of related sheafs, together telling a story? I’d like to think so.

      The ancient Egyptians helped advance writing by moving beyond basic label-like hieroglyphs to using more expressive phonetic signs representing sounds. They developed one of the first cipher alphabets by substituting hieroglyphs for letters. Their pictorial symbols and illuminated manuscript traditions influenced other cultures. Innovations like demotic script and ink on papyrus provided convenient writing mediums. Recording knowledge in enduring formats helped Egyptian learning endure for millennia.

      The Phoenicians developed a simplified consonantal alphabet which was widely adopted. Adding vowels, the Greeks created the first major full alphabet that could represent comprehensive speech. Greek writers produced foundational texts on philosophy, drama, history, science and mathematics that formed the basis of Western thought.

      That Phoenician alphabet had an enduring influence which persists into the 21st century. As one of the first phonetic alphabets, it helped set the stage for the widespread adoption of alphabetical writing systems across many cultures. Modern Latin-based alphabets can trace their origins back over 3,000 years to early Phoenician letters. Phoenician seafaring trade also spread writing to new areas. Their invention of ink from tree resin is a precursor to modern ink. Even our numerical system has origins tied to Phoenician numbers. Their pioneering alphabetic accomplishments still shape global literacy and communication.

      This would influence other alphabets including the Roman one. The Romans adapted the Phoenician alphabet by adding letters and standardising an official script. Roman scribes and printing innovations helped disseminate

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