MS Surface is the new intuitive design that Microsoft came up with. It is a multi-touch table that recognizes the shape of the object placed on top of it and can determine what it is. Having a interfaces that allows many people to touch it simultaneously, it is one of the biggest projects that Microsoft ever launched. At the present: it costs 10K, but Microsoft ensure us that the cost will sharply decrease over just a couple of years.
This project will, without a doubt revolutionize the world, but will it change it in a bad way? Of course, now we can play poker without anyone cheating, but will it degrade humanity even more with even more reliable technology?
I know that this technology will have incredible potentials, because with all of its available uses, it has countless numbers of applications (drawing, map, picture, gaming). Here's a really cool application I found on ted.com:
You can see how effortless and painless is it for it to use it. In fact, it scares me when I think how this resource will handicap us by making us dangerously reliant on technology.
I think that what happens when we have more free time reflects our focus and purpose. Given more time, people have a choice: they can either pursue more meaningful and important things, or they can watch more movies. While I don't have anything against movies, I think the former must be emphasized. More time, including time granted to us by more efficient technology, never degrades society, it just paints a clearer picture of what it is.
ReplyDeleteBut I think that you do have a point regarding the reliability of technology. When technology, especially prevalent technology (something this technology is going to be), malfunctions, you get big problems.
But I think those problems can be circumvented by smart design in both structure and interface. An healthy focus on conventions will allow different modules, be they gadgets, operating systems, or applications, to work together while still allowing innovation. When there are enough rules to ensure functionality but not so many so as to stifle it (or frustrate a person trying to get something done), I think that there will be far less problems with technology. Of course, I am no expert on technology in general or in specific, so don't take this too seriously.
But, interpreting your conclusion in a different way, you may be saying that an interface too easy to use may destroy our logic. But there is no reason to prefer an unintuitive interface over an intuitive one. The whole point of having an interface is to bring the way information is presented closer to the way we directly process it. As long as we are still processing and developing information and ideas, we are all right.
Here's my observation, though there is nothing to prove it: As technology is becoming more dependent, the levels of intelligence found in society is becoming greater. I think it's a pretty good argument, considering that the motivation levels of people shifted, as information could be obtained more reliable and faster. The motivated people take this as an opportunity. However, the unmotivated people starts to lag and take information as granted...
ReplyDeleteJust a "curious" observation...
I think that this is inevitable and generalizes to all sorts of situations. Anything that makes success easier is seized by the motivated and taken advantage of by the unmotivated.
ReplyDeleteSuccess = Motivation + Effort + Persistence
ReplyDeleteThough, of course, there is also a correlation between motivation, effor, and persistence as well.
ReplyDeleteSuccess also involves a large helping of creativity and luck.
So, to be technical:
ReplyDeleteSuccess = Motivation + Effort + Persistence + Creativity + Luck + Resources + Connections + Time Management + Ethic + Talent + Gift + Intelligence ......
Yes, success is very complicated, and if you can find all the terms in "...", then you're better than all the leading scientists and analysts out there.
ReplyDeleteBut the factors of success that have the largest impact are also the ones that you can control. (Except for luck, and, in a related way, creativity.)
Ex.
ReplyDeleteBill Gates was successful.
He was lucky, motivated, tried hard, implemented different methods, had resources, made connections, managed his time wisely, had the talent, had the gift, had the intelligence ..............