of Comellas Rare Books 2026-02-21T18:18:50+02:00 Copyright 2004-2005 Ublog Reload 1.0.5 JULIEN https://www.livres-rares.com/english/blog/blog_comment.asp?bi=73#78 2023-09-09T19:40:18+02:00 2023-09-09T19:40:18+02:00 2023-09-09T19:40:18+02:00 Dear "COPERNIC",

thank you so much for your detailed note and for sharing with us your own experience with AI !

I agree with most of your thoughts. In particular, I find extremely significant that despite the unbelievable improvements of this technology over the last years, it still remains unable to dig efficiently into the huge amount of information the study of books requires to handle. It still lacks the ability of priorizing and classifying properly, depending on the context, the information it collects, and uses little tricks (like referring to the user's previous requests vaguely related to the same subject) to make its speech look plausible, without any safety proceeding to dismiss errors and factual unconsistency.

As a result it often produces complete nonsense when questionned about our specialized field of rare books. What is funny and worrying at the same time with our common friend, Mr. ChatGPT (or Mrs., but that is another question), is the self-confidence it sprays in his responses, while making totally wrong statements. It's able to speak for hours but it's just a machine, after all, and you should'nt expect him to always make much sense. Why is it worrying? Well, just because unexperienced rare book lovers will perhaps tend to believe in excess what it says.

I do believe that human knowledge, experience and reflection are still necessary to investigate rare books efficiently. Our reference library, here at the book shop, gathers litterally thousands of volumes. It's not all about being able to browse billions of words and relating them in a given context. It's perhaps even more important to be able to check the right reference with the proper perspective, and to draw a line that connects one source of information with another. This requires a different approach than just searching a chain of characters within tons of printed pages, and AI doesn't seem ready yet to perform this search without human supervision.

That being said we have certainly beautiful tools to be brought to us in the future by AI and serious collectors of rare books, either private or institutional, will definitely see a wider range of tools helping them to raise a deeper understand and knowledge of their material.

]]> COPERNIC (N.) https://www.livres-rares.com/english/blog/blog_comment.asp?bi=73#77 2023-09-09T15:40:23+02:00 2023-09-09T15:40:23+02:00 2023-09-09T15:40:23+02:00
Part I: The AI promise!

In my view AI will change serious book collecting a lot. Those of us, who revel in establishing the print history of a certain book, edition, issue will see their endeavors enriched by completely new capabilities of technology. No more hunting for small changes in texts, spelling, punctuation. No more fear of missing out on minute detail during collation that might hold the key for establishing or refuting hypotheses of the way a certain text evolved over time. The accessibility of large data of digitised books will also allow us to solve many puzzles of provenance that hitherto had no chance of ever being solved. Think of the ability to get a better understanding of the composition of libraries of the past.

The downside of this? Our own knowledge will be seriously devalued. Those of us with the ability to remember books, auctions, marks of provenance will find their expert status seriously diminished. Value will be less in memory, and more in the ability to ask the right questions to AI. May be this has a good side too. Younger collectors will find it much easier to enter the discussion.

And the book market? It seems even more concentration on desireable copies of a certain book will be the consequence. But may be more books will deemed to be interesting as we start to learn even about the lesser authors and works.

As you can see I am an optimist. Change has many advantages. If you belong to those that feel the way to get there is more interesting than the destination, you will have a wonderful journey ahead of you. For those of us, who try to preserve the status quo by collecting the past, things look dreary indeed.

Part II: AI Reality today!

But mind you, all of this is far out. Reality is and will be for years to come different. Here is an example. I have recently acquired a book on economic thought dated 1691. The title page had an ownership inscrpition, which read "Rich. Rooth"... after three hours of research I understand that this has been Irishman Richard Rooth (1657-1726), who was a friend of the Quaker William Penn (1644-1718). Penn had secured Rooth the governorship of Kinsale, Ireland, as a successor to this father. Both fathers had served in the Royal Navy.

Then I asked ChatGPT, what it is that we know about him. Here is the answer:

"Richard Rooth (1657-1726) was a French economist and writer known for his work during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He is often associated with early economic thought and writings on economic policy. Here are a few key points about him:

Economic Thought: Richard Rooth is known for his contributions to economic thought, particularly his views on taxation and public finance. He wrote about economic issues during the reign of Louis XIV in France.

"La France Sous le Règne de Louis Boisguilbert": One of his notable works is "La France Sous le Règne de Louis Boisguilbert," which can be translated as "France Under the Reign of Louis Boisguilbert." This work is an important historical source for understanding economic conditions in France during that era.

Influence: Rooth's ideas were influenced by the writings of Richard Cantillon, another early economist. He explored the role of taxation and its impact on the economy, including the burden of taxes on different segments of society.

Legacy: While not as well-known as some of the later economists of the Enlightenment period, Richard Rooth's work contributes to our understanding of economic thought in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. His writings shed light on economic conditions and debates of his time."

Needless to say that all of that is pure nonsense... however also interesting to note is that the AI seemed to have used previous questions I had asked about Pierre LePesant Boisguilbert.

Part III: The short answer!

Will it change collecting? Yes... but probably more for the next generation...]]> JULIEN https://www.livres-rares.com/english/blog/blog_comment.asp?bi=73#76 2023-09-04T14:39:03+02:00 2023-09-04T14:39:03+02:00 2023-09-04T14:39:03+02:00
When it comes to book collecting, a broader perspective is essential. It's not just about academic knowledge and a textual approach; we must also consider various factors related to the materiality of books and the multifaceted lenses through which they can be viewed. AI will undoubtedly provide new tools that can enhance collectors' approaches in certain areas. However, I believe that many aspects of book collecting will remain firmly within the realm of human expertise.]]> LAMBERT (J. H.) https://www.livres-rares.com/english/blog/blog_comment.asp?bi=73#75 2023-09-04T11:22:56+02:00 2023-09-04T11:22:56+02:00 2023-09-04T11:22:56+02:00 The Phenomenon of Man, first imagined the global spread of communication and its ultimate interconnection of all of us. He called this the Noösphere. A consciousness encompassing the whole Earth. It seems likely that we are arriving at that point.

A very primitive form of such a thing already manifests itself in the field of rare books: I can (without much more effort than to simple think it) consult the Internet (proto-Noösphere?) and find available copies, library copies, commercial availability, etc., of almost any book. There are still some books hidden away -- but they are quickly being found and subsumed into the global awareness.

The question of AI is aptly raised by Julien. We are only now seeing what it possible. What will AI be capable of when it eventually has access to all the books that have been digitized? It will "read" them all (recognize the characters, learn the words, the sentences) an gain command of their contents. Imagine the connections it will be able to make, the influences it will ferret out, the lines of influence it will identify! It is the identification of Julien's autograph but writ large. I cordially dislike soi-disant "futurists" and their predictions -- but this seems inevitable. It will be the golden age of book collecting, or its death.

Apropos of this issue (and I mean "issue" not "problem") is a book reviewed this weekend in the Wall Street Journal. A gloomy view, but a very interesting read. And the book appears to worthy of reading. Here is a link to a PDF of the review:

The Gutenberg Parenthesis’ ]]> JULIEN https://www.livres-rares.com/english/blog/blog_comment.asp?bi=73#74 2023-09-03T17:45:00+02:00 2023-09-03T17:45:00+02:00 2023-09-03T17:45:00+02:00 obedient than intuitive since my gg account is set to alert me when my name is quoted online... but maybe intuition is the next step? ]]> MONTAIGNE (M. de) https://www.livres-rares.com/english/blog/blog_comment.asp?bi=73#73 2023-09-03T01:36:27+02:00 2023-09-03T01:36:27+02:00 2023-09-03T01:36:27+02:00
---Bill C.]]> CAMPANELLA (T.) https://www.livres-rares.com/english/blog/blog_comment.asp?bi=73#72 2023-09-02T17:26:05+02:00 2023-09-02T17:26:05+02:00 2023-09-02T17:26:05+02:00 Ciao and congratulations!
Leandro ]]>