[103] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
RE: Computerspeak
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Apr 28 11:24:19 1992
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1992 10:20:37 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
From: "Lee Jaffe, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz,
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I've been catching bits and pieces of the PBS series "The Machine That
Changed the World" and was very much struck by comments at the end of
the episode on the development of the microcomputer. After showing
young children using and talking about micros, the narrator says,
(and I misquote) "Our mistake was thinking of the computer as a tool.
It is a new medium." The picture then shows a university computer lab
and the narrator goes on, "Like the book, the acceptance of which took
centuries, we are far from accepting this new medium." The picture
zooms in on a heavy, zinc-plated chain and lock securing the micro to
the table, "And like early books that were chained to the library's
shelves, this new media needs to be chained to prevent its theft."
I had to suppress my natural urge to object to that last analogy, both
as a librarian and as a micro-phile. I decided instead that I might
get more from the experience in thinking about ways in which the compar-
ison is apt rather than faulty.
I offer this to the current discussion in order to raise the question:
Perhaps some of the disappointment and frustration being voiced comes
from having different expectations for the technology. In other words,
the fact that it is not performing as expected is because it is not
trying to meet those expections. (I know, a technology can't try ...
but an industry can, can't it?)
-- Lee Jaffe, UC Santa Cruz
