Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site hcr.UUCP Path: utzoo!hcr!ravi From: ravi@hcr.UUCP (Ravi Pandya) Newsgroups: net.works Subject: Re: ICONS: Passing Fad or New Found Wisdom? Message-ID: <440@hcr.UUCP> Date: Sun, 26-Jun-83 15:51:55 EDT Article-I.D.: hcr.440 Posted: Sun Jun 26 15:51:55 1983 Date-Received: Sun, 26-Jun-83 15:57:03 EDT References: <2434@sri-arpa.UUCP>, <715@utcsstat.UUCP> Organization: Human Computing Resources, Toronto Lines: 44 Whew! You certainly were feeling cynical -- but your article had a lot of unpleasant (but true) points that set my thoughts on a path they haven't been along in a while. It is quite chilling to see how few people use their intelligence at all (let alone to its full capacity). Following the rise of anti-science movements like the Creationists, the more rabid of the ecology groups (although some of them have many valid and intelligent points), the mystic and pseudo-scientific cults (like the Scientologists that our windows look down upon), over the last few years gives the impression of an almost palpable fear of rational and scientific thought, a kind of "look where thinking has brought us -- let's stop thinking" attitude. If anything is going to destroy us, I think this is the prime candidate, for people who don't think can be swayed with ease by any skilful demagogue with a bit of media coverage. Look at Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States, a "world superpower", in command of enough power to destroy the earth many times over -- a B-grade movie actor. (Pierre Trudeau, despite his faults, is a well-read, well-educated, well-travelled, intelligent man -- he toured through the Third World on a motorcycle in his thirties to get first-hand experience with the conditions there). So what is there to be done? It would be impossible to give 180 million Americans (I'm still amazed by that figure!) an idea of what that sense of wonder, of discovery, of enlightenment is really like, and (cynically) if you try something of that massive a scope, you're simply going to be disappointed. I content myself with designing tools that make those who do want to think and create more effective at the task, and perhaps to make the activity seem less foreign to those unaccustomed to it. Despite their "cuteness", the iconic referents and similar graphical user-interface techniques are the best way that I can see to do that. If you don't have to spend your time fighting your way through the Sargasso Seas of the abysmal user interface facilities of Unix (which is one of the better traditional systems), then you can spend more time solving the problem you're working on. CPU power requirement isn't the issue -- mind power requirement is. Computer science suffers greatly from the archaic idea that the computer is still the expensive part of the system, and many people waste much time adapting themselves to computer systems that are well-designed, but with the wrong set of design parameters; the designers tried to minimize demand on the computer rather than demand on the user. "You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think" [I think either George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde] --ravi