Steve Jobs on Computers as Bikes for Mind
Artemisia
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ob_GX50Za6c&fmt=18
EFR
At a computer in Ile de France
Daniel Barlow
> Sorry if this has been posted already. I thought it was cute.
>
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=ob_GX50Za6c&fmt=18
He opens by saying that "One of the things that separates us from the
higher primates is that we're tool builders", then talks about the
human's inefficient locomotion being imroved drastically by use of a
bicycle. The analogy is that computers assist our minds in the same
way.
I found it interesting that he said "tool builders" and not "tool
users", though, given what lengths his company goes to prevent, say,
iPhone owners from building anything on them other than what Apple
decrees is OK (and the same is seen throughout the computer industry
to greater or lesser extents, with EULAs and so on). No bike
manufacturer anywhere prevents you from doing what you want to the
bike you own. *That's* a platform for tool building.
-dan
Roger Zoul
"Daniel Barlow" <d...@telent.net> wrote
> I found it interesting that he said "tool builders" and not "tool
> users", though, given what lengths his company goes to prevent, say,
> iPhone owners from building anything on them other than what Apple
> decrees is OK (and the same is seen throughout the computer industry
> to greater or lesser extents, with EULAs and so on). No bike
> manufacturer anywhere prevents you from doing what you want to the
> bike you own. *That's* a platform for tool building.
>
>
> -dan
Come on, Dan. If Jobs opened up the iPhone then he'd have a support
nightmare. The PC world has proven that beyond doubt. BTW, man is both a
tool builder and a tool user.
Rob Morley
"Roger Zoul" <roger...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> BTW, man is
> both a tool builder and a tool user.
>
Who makes the tools to make the tools to make the tools ... ?
:-)
PoB
"Roger Zoul" <roger...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
|
| Come on, Dan. If Jobs opened up the iPhone ....... BTW, man is both a
| tool builder and a tool user.
Builder and User are superfluous.
pOB
Paul M. Hobson
I disagree. Many lower primates use sticks and other objects found in
nature as tools, but do not modify or build them to any great extent.
--
Paul M. Hobson
.:change the f to ph to reply:.
Daniel Barlow
> Come on, Dan. If Jobs opened up the iPhone then he'd have a support
> nightmare. The PC world has proven that beyond doubt.
Which suggests it's not actually a very good analogy to start with,
then. There's no such support nightmare opening up the bicycle to
end-user tinkering (bike shop owners may have their own opinion on
this, but the scale of the problem is definitely not as great).
A bike is simple and elegant and the principles underlying its
operation can be readily apprehended. A computer is, well, not. Jobs
is correct that the computer is a tool to make the brain more
efficient, but that's as far as it goes: the analogy falls down hard
when you push it. He'd have been better off with something like "The
computer is the F-22 for the mind", but that's not nearly as sexy.
-dan
lime...@gmail.com
Very interesting.
Thanks for sharing.
Lewis.
*****
Mike Jacoubowsky
| then. There's no such support nightmare opening up the bicycle to
| end-user tinkering (bike shop owners may have their own opinion on
| this, but the scale of the problem is definitely not as great).
You're right, bike shop owners may differ with you on that one. One need
look only as far as drivetrains to see "support issues" that can become
quite taxing. Customers who want to mix & match things and expect it all to
work perfectly together when it was designed for something entirely
different, and get upset at anyone who suggests that the reasons those items
don't play well together is because they weren't designed to. And they'll
say that so-and-so is using it and it works just fine.
The analogy works quite well, better than I initially thought. It would be
fun to come up with bike equivalents to such things as the BSOD (Black
Screen of Death).
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
"Daniel Barlow" <d...@telent.net> wrote in message
news:87mymqi...@toy.config...
Bill Sornson
> ...It
> would be fun to come up with bike equivalents to such things as the
> BSOD (Black Screen of Death).
For me, it's hearing that /crack!/ when tightening a stem bolt. (Haven't
done it in years...quick learner.)
Bill "and my death screen is blue" S.
budstaff
"Paul M. Hobson" <fob...@gatech.edu> wrote in message
news:g0k1n0$2r$1...@news-int2.gatech.edu...
> PoB wrote:
>> "Roger Zoul" <roger...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> |
>> | Come on, Dan. If Jobs opened up the iPhone ....... BTW, man is both a
>> | tool builder and a tool user.
>>
>> Builder and User are superfluous.
>
>
> I disagree. Many lower primates use sticks and other objects found in
> nature as tools, but do not modify or build them to any great extent.
>
Tom Keats
Daniel Barlow <d...@telent.net> writes in part:
> I found it interesting that he said "tool builders" and not "tool
> users", though,
Whuddaya expect from an (erstwhile?) Unix guy? ;-)
> given what lengths his company goes to prevent, say,
> iPhone owners from building anything on them other than what Apple
> decrees is OK (and the same is seen throughout the computer industry
> to greater or lesser extents, with EULAs and so on).
It's called "proprietism." At least, I think it is,
although I may have just coined a word.
cheers, & standards (and backward compatibility) are good,
Tom
--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca
Ryan Cousineau
wrote:
> In article <87r6c2i...@toy.config>,
> Daniel Barlow <d...@telent.net> writes in part:
>
> > I found it interesting that he said "tool builders" and not "tool
> > users", though,
>
> Whuddaya expect from an (erstwhile?) Unix guy? ;-)
>
> > given what lengths his company goes to prevent, say,
> > iPhone owners from building anything on them other than what Apple
> > decrees is OK (and the same is seen throughout the computer industry
> > to greater or lesser extents, with EULAs and so on).
>
> It's called "proprietism." At least, I think it is,
> although I may have just coined a word.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietism
Technically, the iPhone is not proprietistic. It does use a semi-closed
development-and-delivery model (how closed? Well, I have a copy of the
iPhone SDK, so not very).
OTOH, the philosophy of the iPhone as an app platform is primarily
(though by no means exclusively) to provide a first-rate mobile web
browser and serve apps as web apps.
Which, after all, seems to be the going thing these days.
Work just gave me a Blackberry,
--
Ryan Cousineau rcou...@gmail.com http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."
Zoot Katz
<fob...@gatech.edu> wrote:
>PoB wrote:
>> "Roger Zoul" <roger...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> |
>> | Come on, Dan. If Jobs opened up the iPhone ....... BTW, man is both a
>> | tool builder and a tool user.
>>
>> Builder and User are superfluous.
>
>
>I disagree. Many lower primates use sticks and other objects found in
>nature as tools, but do not modify or build them to any great extent.
Crows are better at tool building than are chimpanzees.
Crows of New Caledonia fashion insect traps from leaves.
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0423_030423_crowtools.html>
This one made a hook from a piece of wire.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2178920.stm.
--
zk
Paul M. Hobson
>>> [Tool] Builder and [Tool] User are superfluous.
> On Fri, 16 May 2008 09:20:32 -0400, "Paul M. Hobson"
> <fob...@gatech.edu> wrote:
>> I disagree. Many lower primates use sticks and other objects found in
>> nature as tools, but do not modify or build them to any great extent.
Zoot Katz wrote:
> Crows are better at tool building than are chimpanzees.
>
> Crows of New Caledonia fashion insect traps from leaves.
> <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0423_030423_crowtools.html>
>
> This one made a hook from a piece of wire.
> <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2178920.stm.
Wow. Interesting reads. Thanks for the links.
\\paul