Sunday, August 27, 2017
Patient typewriters
Surprising endurance: Manual typewriters are still common in Burma and India. Big offices and corporations have gone digital like everywhere else, but typists are active as street vendors.
Typing never moved out of the office in the West, so when corporations went electronic all typewriters disappeared.
The announcer doesn't say it, but you can see that the street typists are not mainly doing secretary work; they're serving as informal lawyers and informal bureaucrats. Helping the customer to navigate through forms and legalities. Another job that can't happen here. (Notaries and Justices of the Peace used to serve a similar function, but have been regulated out of existence.)
Labels: Alternate universe, Patient things, skill-estate
¶ 3:36 PM
