We enjoyed “Steve Jobs, Kraftwerk and The Curse of Beautiful Technology” by Joshua Kopstein on Motherboard. He touches on something really important here about the “man – machine relationship”, saying that “we must keep our desire for elegant technology in check.” He describes what he calls “the curse of beautiful technology”
the confinement which leaves us unable to pursue our own ideas of beauty and perfection. From within the confines of beautifully integrated systems, we see marketplaces, music services, everything the average person could possibly want. Everything, so you never have to leave. I’ve likened it to living inside a lavish resort hotel: spacious, convenient and attractive, but its walls stay the same color and you know you could never go out back and build a deck. Because it would have to be a white marble deck, with rounded edges, and you would have to be an officially licensed deck-builder.
I’m planning on going on a technology diet to end the curse somewhat. Starts this weekend. No internet/laptop eeek!
Well done! We encourage anything that helps us feel that we can take control and manage our relationship to technology better. (We’ve seen so many people tweet that they are inconsolable while their smartphone is sent for factory repairs.) Let us know how living without “beautiful technology” is!