Re: RE: Text and authority in 18th-century China
Katherine Goff (Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu)
Thu, 14 May 1998 08:27:32 -0600
Eugene wrote:
>> When I say that I
>> interact with a text or a book, I feel it is like a metaphor of saying
>that
>> I interact with the author of the text or the book. The closest sense I
>can
>> think of interaction is when I play chess with a computer. I may feel
>it as
>> an opponent and not just conduit of designer's will.
<snip>
Luiz wrote:
> ONE man and ONE machine was the
>norm, but people realize the there are not only men using them, and the
>field has focus on ONE human and ONE computer, and it was not only being
>used for calculations. But there were advantages in mainframes, because
>although that technology was being used for calculation, it was also used
>for communication, and personal computers did not allow that. So personal
>computers have been linked first within labs, organizations, and now we
>have the WWW. Therefore I construe interaction between humans and
>computers as well as humans and humans.
>
I would also like to add that interacting with a computer can be more like
a book than Eugene mentioned. I often have a sense of the "author" of the
software, and sometimes even the "author," or designer of the hardware.
This mostly occurs when I get frustrated that the damn thing won't do what
seems intuitive to me. But sometimes I am surprised and pleased that
something works the way I think it should and I don't even have to read
any directions or spend any time trying to figure out, "if I were the
programmer where would I put that editing command?"
Kathie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Life's backwards,
Life's backwards,
People, turn around.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Sinead O'Connor and John Reynolds
Fire on Babylon: Universal Mother^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu
http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~kegoff/index.html