Advances and Setbacks: Charting the Course of Technology, 1996 New Printing Technologies Symposium Proceedings

Roger Ynostroza

Graphic Arts Monthly

What’s Coming Next - You know, we editors and journalists are always looking for coincidence and convergence and controversy and “valid commentary”. We think we spot industry trends in random occurrences. We interpret the vagaries of technological development into some well-defined sequence. We sort through press releases like they were so many tea leaves. We breathlessly jot down the offhand comments of so-called industry experts as if we could somehow transform their words into wisdom. In general, we try to make sense out of chaos for the benefit and edification of our readers and listeners. As if. As if, in pursuit of what we’re all pursuing-simply knowing what’s coming next-we willingly drive for hours or fly thousands of miles to gain advantage over the person who’s not here, or better yet, the person sitting right next to us this very morning. As if by coming here we could compare our notes with everyone else’s notes in a desperate move to grasp that valid vision we all pursue. As if. I did hear a truly wise man at the Moscone Center in San Francisco last week, and this is the gist of what he said: history proves that our forecasts and predictions about what’s coming next are always wrong. Of course, that should not-it cannot-deter us from looking ahead, from anticipating the future and thus preparing as best we can for those coming events, whatever they might be. And for the true geniuses among us, accurately anticipating what’s coming next gives rise and lift to their breakthroughs or technological innovations. But it does take a little of the edge off our prognostications. Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to be here this morning and to be a part of your learning experience, our learning experience. You may want to tighten your seatbelts because I’m going to blend together results and announcements-coincidences, say, or even convergence-from the Drupa exposition in Germany in May of last year, the on-demand show in New York in the spring, the GATF 1996 InterTech Technology Award winners announced a few months ago, the Seybold Seminars in San Francisco last week, the Graph Expo East ‘96 regional show taking place in Philadelphia in...