On technology versus magic
All the talk about the iPad 2 brings me back to some thoughts I scribbled down when the iPad 1 launched. Most of it is incomprehensible, mostly due to a combination of alcohol and fine-tipped pens but what I do remember is getting ticked off at the iPad presentation. Specifically, every single time one of the presenters said the word "magic."
Arthur C. Clarke famously said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." It's an interesting thought; we generally think that Newton or Pythagoras would look at a TV and scream witchcraft, so would we react the same way to stuff from the far future? But it is completely irrelevant to the iPad. Because let's face it, it isn't sufficiently advanced. That's why the presenters kept saying "like magic." Really people? Are we that impressed by smooth screen transitions and touch interfaces? Because I have a really shiny object in my pocket if you're that easily astounded.
Apple-hating aside (and I shouldn't single out Apple, they aren't the only ones who talk this way), I guess I just hate the word "magic." "Magic" has no process, while good technology is the product of smart and dedicated people. "Magic" is known only to a few arcane-empowered individuals, while anyone can go get an engineering degree and interview for a job with us (hint hint); or at minimum buy me a beer and listen to me ramble about architecture. "Magic" was this mystical thing that people used to explain what they couldn't explain until a scientist or technologist gave a real explanation that let people actually apply this knowledge for some good. Technology builds civilizations. Magic amuses kids at a birthday party.
So let's have some respect for products and the people who work on them. When someone calls great technology "magic," they are denigrating it and the people that worked on it. They're saying that this thing just happened out of nowhere, with a puff of smoke; that no one really knows what is going on with it and in a few years, no one will remember it. There's no greater honor we can give great technology than calling it great technology.
Arthur C. Clarke famously said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." It's an interesting thought; we generally think that Newton or Pythagoras would look at a TV and scream witchcraft, so would we react the same way to stuff from the far future? But it is completely irrelevant to the iPad. Because let's face it, it isn't sufficiently advanced. That's why the presenters kept saying "like magic." Really people? Are we that impressed by smooth screen transitions and touch interfaces? Because I have a really shiny object in my pocket if you're that easily astounded.
Apple-hating aside (and I shouldn't single out Apple, they aren't the only ones who talk this way), I guess I just hate the word "magic." "Magic" has no process, while good technology is the product of smart and dedicated people. "Magic" is known only to a few arcane-empowered individuals, while anyone can go get an engineering degree and interview for a job with us (hint hint); or at minimum buy me a beer and listen to me ramble about architecture. "Magic" was this mystical thing that people used to explain what they couldn't explain until a scientist or technologist gave a real explanation that let people actually apply this knowledge for some good. Technology builds civilizations. Magic amuses kids at a birthday party.
So let's have some respect for products and the people who work on them. When someone calls great technology "magic," they are denigrating it and the people that worked on it. They're saying that this thing just happened out of nowhere, with a puff of smoke; that no one really knows what is going on with it and in a few years, no one will remember it. There's no greater honor we can give great technology than calling it great technology.
posted by Mehal at 1:09 AM
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