Field Note: A computer for the 21st century

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I’ve been meaning to write more field notes. They are intended to be short form, less time consuming to write. That way I can share more of the stuff I come across. We’re getting there - it’s a workflow tweak to remember to change gears and write one.

In that spirit, here’s the best of what I’ve been reading today

1. This response to Terry Godier’s "The Last Quiet Thing" essay - Max Obermeier’s “Owning Technology”. It adds to Godier’s essay, using the example of a knife to show how there’s more than just one aspect to the idea.
2. I took a look at Obermeier’s blog when I was done, and found this - “Software in the Age of Extraction”. A workbench covered in a mess of tools is a terrific metaphor for a lot of today’s software. We should run the machines, not be run by them. I have been on a trek through the internet archive in pursuit of arcane knowledge on a similar topic - malleable computing. It’ll turn up as an Endpapers essay eventually, once I pull apart all of the threads.
3. In the same vein, here’s a 1991 essay from Xerox PARC’s Mark Weiser - “A computer for the 21st Century”. The opening line tracks with the ideas from “The Last Quiet Thing” - “ The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it. ”