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Cargando... Machine Beauty: Elegance and the Heart of Technologypor David Gelernter
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. Engineering has strong aesthetic elements, whether or not engineers would think of them as such. Gelernter describes the engineering-aesthetic aspects of digital artifacts from an insider’s perspective, concentrating on technical elegance as equivalent to a combination of power and simplicity. Gelernter seeks to define the yin of technology, which he summarizes thus: "Power married to simplicity equals machine beauty." His premise is that technology is viewed as hard (as in "hard science"), rational and masculine, and therefore "we" are uncomfortable recognizing an aesthetic in technology. He rejects the idea that beautiful technology is effeminate -- that would, of course, negate the power of the technology. His example is the Macintosh computer, originally reviled by technologists as cute or girly. However, it becomes acceptable when defined in terms of machine beauty -- power and simplicity. His goal is to find an aesthetic that doesn't threaten the masculine view of technology. Much of what he describes is indeed beautiful technology -- the perfect line of code, the graceful bridge, the designer chair. But his fear of femininity permeates his thesis. This book needs to be read along with David Noble's two works: "A World Without Women" and "The Religion of Technology." Both show how male scientists and technologists see their work as purely masculine, a withdrawal from a world that includes women. Gelernter denies that feminine technology can exist, and never mentions women in his book. I would like to introduce him to Ellen Spertus (http://people.mills.edu/spertus/), who teaches computer science to women at Mills College and has said: "I believe that you can be rigorous AND nurturing." That concept would shatter Gelernter's world view. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
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When something works well, you can feel it; there is a sense of rightness to it. We call that rightness beauty, and it ought to be the single most important component of design.This recognition is at the heart of David Gelernter's witty argued essay, Machine Beauty, which defines beauty as an inspired mating of simplicity and power. You can see it in a Bauhaus chair, the Hoover Dam, or an Emerson radio circa 1930. In contrast, too many contemporary technologists run out of ideas and resort to gimmicks and features; they are rarely capable of real, structural ingenuity.Nowhere is this more evident than in the world of computers. You don't have to look far to see how oblivious most computer technologists are to the idea of beauty. Just look at how ugly your computer cabinet is, how unwieldy and out of sync it feels with the manner and speed with which you process thought.The best designers, however, are obsessed with beauty. Both hardware and software should afford us the greatest opportunity to achieve deep beauty, the kind of beauty that happens when many types of loveliness reinforce one another, when design expresses an underlying technology, a machine logic. Program software ought to be transparent; it should engage what Gelernter calls "a thought-amplifying feedback loop," a creative symbiosis with its user. These principles, beautiful in themselves, will set the stage for the next technological revolution, in which the pursuit of elegance will lead to extraordinary innovations.Machine Beauty will delight Gelernter's growing audience, fans of his provocative and biting journalism. Anyone who manufactures, designs, or uses computers will be galvanized by his cogent arguments and tantalizing glimpse of a bright future, where beautiful technology abounds. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)004.01Information Computing and Information Computer science Computer science -- subdivisions Theory And InstructionClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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