https://www.wired.com/story/how-dumb-design-wwii-plane-led-macintosh
Thanks to WIRED for this article on the design of planes, specifically the B-17 bomber in World War II and how fatal crashes led to better design and human/machine and human/computer interfaces, leading to the Macintosh.
Although thought provoking, I dislike and disagree with some of the discussions in this article:
- Carnival Cruise’s idea that a “personal genome” should learn your preferences as you wander the ship, and show and encourage you to see more of the same. Where is serendipity, discovery, and being exposed to contrasting ideas?
- Furthermore, what about The Shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains? Like what I’m doing to you here, reading my blog post, probably sent here from a link from your Twitter or Linkedin or Facebook streams. We are skimmers, not readers anymore. Can we even hold a complex thread of ideas in our head on one topic?
- I’m reminded of the medical term “clang association” where patients with psychosis hear something which reminds them of an unrelated conversation. Distractable, are we.
- Also, the pre-flight checklist, I think, comes from the B-17 bomber, the plane that was claimed to be “too complicated for humans to fly”.
CMIO’s take? See how I illustrated clang associations for you? AFAIK I don’t have psychosis or schizophrenia, but then maybe — SQUIRREL!
