The Inescapable Use of the Typewriter: The Vintage AI

It’s hard to imagine now in our world of flashing, scrolling tablets and jaw-dropping digital tools, that a clanky typewriter was ever regarded with just as much wonder and surrealism. Typing on a typewriter nowadays feels tedious and inefficient when you can highlight, space, and delete with such fluid ease on a computer. Typewriters have been simply reduced to a museum piece and a bygone innovation that our parents and grandparents may have used.

You probably think that the people who were impressed by the typewriters would be rendered speechless by the idea of Artificial Intelligence typing out paragraphs and novels of text on every and any subject for us. You may even venture to think that they could not understand our nostalgia for their made redundant machinery, nor begin to grasp our frustration that all human touch will be obliterated by AI. Except, can you understand that they would be able to relate to the panic? That dusty, heavy, clanky typewriter once evoked the same feelings in them.

Ex Deus Machina

It was a firearms manufacturing firm that introduced the world to the first commercially successful typewriter. E. Remington and Sons had been celebrated producers of metallic ammunition for years and had started to delve into farming and gardening instruments for the everyday man. Philo Remington, son of Eliphalet Remington, took over management of the firm after his father’s death in 1861. In 1866, Philo made a contract with designer and inventor Christopher Sholes and mechanic Carlos Glidden to help manufacture their idea of the typewriter, a mechanical concept that was fairly new. The Remington typewriter had an evolved keyboard, the QWERTY keyboard that we still use today on all devices. By 1873, the Remington typewriter was loaded and launched into all offices, factories, and homes. E. Remington and Sons continued to adapt it to feature shift keys, cases, and all new colors. It became portable, it helped hire women, and it made the news more readily available.

The typewriter was one of the most ground-shaking inventions since Gutenberg’s printing press in the 15th century. The typewriter outdid the printing press entirely.

The printing press had been the industry standard for centuries. The press involved a set of individually cast characters and symbols that would be arranged and screwed into place along a matrix, painted over with ink, and pressed down with the help of a machine onto paper. A block of print could be created at once, but it was the job of the people working the machines to set up each piece and meticulously transfer ink onto the paper without creating blotches or tears. For those who did not have the means to house a printing press, handwriting was the go-to. Typewriters reduced all this laborious time and division significantly. All anyone had to do was swiftly punch a letter on the keyboard for a little metal type to come up and smack a pre-loaded paper with the character already covered in the appropriate amount of ink from a pre-loaded ink ribbon inside the typewriter. Nothing had to be constantly rearranged or carefully prepped and pressed.

While it was all indeed much more efficient, as more people began to adopt the typewriter and step away from doing everything by hand, more lazy proofreading was noticed in final productions, for there was no easy way to erase with a typewriter, and therefore some things would just accidentally find their way to publication. Printing companies and news outlets dropped presses for another type of machine called the Linotype, which made use of a keyboard as well. Print became more streamlined and lost its uniqueness. This outraged people. They felt that the hours of the human touch, handwriting and arranging type casts, were valuable and much more thorough and thoughtful. Why not reflect humankind’s ability to work, create, and imagine?

The Arts and Crafts Movement

There was no reversing the typewriter or any other type of modern typing machine. It became necessary in the office, and effectiveness was needed to meet the rise of consumer demand. Society was becoming more industrialized with no signs of stopping.

Thus, was born the Arts and Crafts Movement. It was not required of a person to have perfection or popular skill to participate in the movement. As long as your work was handcrafted, it was valued. The finer points of artistry in decoration, bookmaking, woodwork, and more were what people craved to combat the revolution of industrialization.

Ornamental print, furniture, and metalwork transcended crude standardization and plainness to become beautiful objects of art. The quality of an object was more important than the quantity, and “taste” was a fashionable way to express the presence of the movement. You still hear people nowadays boast whenever they have something handmade. Handcraft is a way to show off affluence and your apparent “taste.” It also brings considerable respectability to the people dedicating time to make each object, because you know they could just slough off the work to go the easier method of producing text, textiles, silverware, etc. A handcrafted and hand-painted book may not be as flawless as a neatly typed one, but you can visually recognize the hard work. Handcraft also involved community and cooperation. Materials from all over were sought to make pieces of furniture, and people especially skilled in different fields collaborated to bind a book. Every working person turned into a master in their subject.

Though the newness and invention of the typewriter amazed many people at its introduction, it was later seen as just a common item, hardly anything to take note of. The printing press and pretty handwriting became uncommon and precious. So though hand-crafted skills were not as reliable as a machine, they still found a space to exist and matter in an industrialized society.

What can Industry Value in the Era of AI?

Computers eventually topped typewriters. Offices accepted and transitioned into electronic tools as the standard for efficiency. You don’t need paper or ribbons of ink and white tape to cover up messed-up text or unwanted lines; a computer and a word processor handle all those painstaking issues. Typewriters are now a novelty. Today’s society appreciates people who work on typewriters for art to carefully type each letter and word on special, quality paper. It’s seen as more “hand-crafted.” Graphics and illustrations can be made digitally on a computer, but painting, drawing, and plain sketching are now fine arts that are worthy of collecting.

The 2020s mark the newest innovation that we are all beginning to transition to — Artificial Intelligence. Can’t find the words for a thank you letter or an essay about a subject you couldn’t care less about, AI can find those words and type them out for you. You don’t need to waste time on a word processor, struggling to think of something to type up. Want to make a quick graphic when you don’t have the time or creativity to think of one yourself? AI can make one for you. Who cares if it’s not individualistic or uniquely expressive? That’s not what you needed in the moment. It wasn’t about the quality; it was about the efficiency in the quantity.

So, how can industry value the human touch in the emergency and demand for AI? Similar to the handcraft movement, the people who take the time to study, learn, and practice skills on a finer and more personal level become the masters of their craft. They understand their craft in a deeper and more observable way than an electronic or robotic intelligence could ever manage in the pursuit of more ready-mades and quick productivity. Hand-craft and human consultancy will once again adapt to carve out a space for itself in our world that will bring all new appreciation and value. Industries need both the efficiency of AI and the human imagination and perception to meet the needs and wants of society. The human touch will continue to rise as more high-end and valuable than what will be mundane and routine results.

Written by Carolina Phillips

Carolina is a graphic designer and writer with a strong foundation in website design, UI/UX, logo creation, print, packaging, and more. She approaches her work as creative problem-solving and hopes to grow and innovate in her skills continually. Carolina graduated from Auburn University with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design, along with two minors in Creative Writing and Asian Studies.

Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Carolina enjoys exploring new cities and kicking back with her friends and family. Additionally, she loves writing, watching classic black-and-white films, and visiting local coffee shops.