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Thanks to new technology, books can now be published before the events they describe even happen. Writing at the Los Angeles Times’ Jacket Copy, Carolyn Kellogg describes how the eBook release of “Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything” by Stephen Baker is available electronically now, even though IBM’s supercomputer Watson is still in the midst of its Jeopardy battle with human trivia whizzes Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings:

On Tuesday, before the match is over, anyone can buy the chronicle as an e-book (for Kindle, Nook, etc.). Even though the book, like the match, isn’t finished yet — because the story isn’t over.

But when the week grinds down to Final Jeopardy and the match is over, the book will be finished. People who’ve purchased the e-book already will get an update with the last of the material that tells the story of the showdown.