The growth of the computer sciences has been spurred by a
relentless search for beauty - or so argues this eminent Yale
computer scientist. Gelernter (Drawing Life: Surviving the
Unabomber, p. 1083; 1939: The Lost World of the Fair, 1995)
recognizes that the nonscientist may not be able to regard a
machine as beautiful. He defines machine beauty as a combination of
simplicity and power - power in the ability to accomplish tasks.
Good design and visual beauty are necessarily related, the author
argues. The application of these concepts to computer science takes
up most of the book. The conflicting aims of hardware and software
designers are particularly crucial; a hardware designer has to
build a practical, affordable machine that can reliably perform
many different jobs. Yet a software designer, unencumbered by
physical limitations, can spin fantastic webs of complexity, with
no concern for the average user's machine. Mere calculation cannot
resolve these conflicting aims, says Gelernter; rather, a sense of
beauty is needed to produce something that will work. For example,
the elegance and pragmatic ease of the original Macintosh's
operating system made it attractive to software designers. But in
the long run, the Mac lost. out to the decidedly "uglier" IBM
platform. Gelernter's contention that the Mac's perceived
"cuteness" failed to appeal to "manly" corporate buyers seems
facile, although it does score the point that elegance may not
actually be an asset in the world of big business. Gelernter goes
on to examine the elegance of operating systems and algorithms. The
rise of the desktop computer - the true basis of the computer
revolution - gets a comprehensive exploration, and Gelernter
discusses the impact of elegance in home software design.
Provocative and full of quirky insights, this book takes a
fascinating look at the broader questions raised by the machines
that rule so much of our lives. (Kirkus Reviews)
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 andtantalizing glimpse of a bright future, where
beautiful technology abounds.
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