{"id":17397,"date":"2025-01-21T05:37:53","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T04:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/21\/signature-moves-are-we-losing-the-ability-to-write-by-hand\/"},"modified":"2025-01-21T05:37:53","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T04:37:53","slug":"signature-moves-are-we-losing-the-ability-to-write-by-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/21\/signature-moves-are-we-losing-the-ability-to-write-by-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Signature moves: are we losing the ability to write by hand?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are far more likely to use our hands to type or swipe than pick up a pen. But in the process we are in danger of losing cognitive skills, sensory experience \u2013 and a connection to history<\/p>\n<p>Humming away in offices on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon and in the White House is a technology that represents the pragmatism, efficiency and unsentimental nature of American bureaucracy: the autopen. It is a device that stores a person\u2019s signature, replicating it as needed using a mechanical arm that holds a real pen.<\/p>\n<p>Like many technologies, this rudimentary robotic signature-maker has always provoked ambivalence. We invest signatures with meaning, particularly when the signer is well known. During the George W Bush administration, the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, generated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2004\/dec\/20\/iraq.usa\">a small wave of outrage<\/a> when reporters revealed that he had been using an autopen for his signature on the condolence letters that he sent to the families of fallen soldiers.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2025\/jan\/21\/signature-moves-are-we-losing-the-ability-to-write-by-hand\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/4877b8db7fcbd3ee37c758c2cfbdb05d8456092c\/296_176_4025_2415\/master\/4025.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=709b882660e20c281d151ad869ed92c5\" title=\"Signature moves: are we losing the ability to write by hand?\" \/>We are far more likely to use our hands to type or swipe than pick up a pen. But in the process we are in danger of losing cognitive skills, sensory experience \u2013 and a connection to history<br \/>\nHumming away in offices on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon and in the White House is a technology that represents the pragmatism, efficiency and unsentimental nature of American bureaucracy: the autopen. It is a device that stores a person\u2019s signature, replicating it as needed using a mechanical arm that holds a real pen.<br \/>\nLike many technologies, this rudimentary robotic signature-maker has always provoked ambivalence. We invest signatures with meaning, particularly when the signer is well known. During the George W Bush administration, the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, generated a small wave of outrage when reporters revealed that he had been using an autopen for his signature on the condolence letters that he sent to the families of fallen soldiers. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are far more likely to use our hands to type or swipe than pick up a pen. But in the process we are in danger of losing cognitive skills, sensory experience \u2013 and a connection to history Humming away in offices on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon and in the White House is a &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/21\/signature-moves-are-we-losing-the-ability-to-write-by-hand\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Signature moves: are we losing the ability to write by hand?<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17397"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}