“Now comes the second machine age. Computers and other digital advances are doing for mental power - the ability to use our brains to understand and shape our environments-what the steam engine and its descendants did for muscle power.” UseAgeAbilityBrainEnvironmentShapesComputerMachinesMusclesDigitalEnginesOur EnvironmentSteamDescendantsMental PowerSteam Engines Author:Erik Brynjolfsson
“Pinball games were constrained by physical limitations, ultimately by the physical laws that govern the motion of a small metal ball. The video world knows no such bounds. Objects fly, spin, accelerate, change shape and color, disappear and reappear. Their behavior, like the behavior of anything created by a computer program, is limited only by the programmer's imagination. The objects in a video game are representations of objects. And a representation of a ball, unlike a real one, never need obey the laws of gravity unless its programmer wants it to.” KnowsWorldWantNeedsRealLawGamesImaginationObjectsColorShapesBehaviorComputerProgramBallsBoundsDisappearVideoLimitationMetalsGravityRepresentationProgrammersAccelerateReal OnesPinball Book:The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit Source: The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit
“I didn’t like it [computer] when I first began using it. Where it’s helped me a lot is in nonfiction which is a kind of different process. You’ve got research, you’ve got your notes, You can block out what you want to work on for the next 10 pages and put it in another file, and then you can kind of carve it into shape” WantFirstsKindDifferentNextProcessFictionShapesComputerPagesResearchNotesWhat You WantBlockFilesNon Fiction Author:Joan Didion
“The mind wraps itself around a poem. It is almost sensual, particularly if you work on a computer. You can turn the poem round and about and upside down, dancing with it a kind of bolero of two snakes twisting and coiling, until the poem has found its right and proper shape.” IfsMindKindTwoTurnsFoundShapesComputerDancingRoundsSensualSnakesWrapsUpside Down Author:Marge Piercy
“Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. The iMac is not just the color or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays together.” MenMadeSoulEndsPlayTogetherCreativityDesignCreationColorProductsShapesElementsComputerEssenceInnovationFundamentalsConsumersLayersShellsFinestWorkplaceImac Book:Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs Source: Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs
“For me, form is something I locate in the process of writing the poems. What I mean is, I start scribbling, and then try to form the poem - on a typewriter or on my computer - and, by trial and error, try to find the right shape. I just try to keep forming the poem in different ways until it feels right to me.” WayFeelsWritingTryingMeanDifferentFormProcessShapesComputerErrorsTrialsDifferent WaysTypewritersFeels RightTrial And Error Author:Matthew Zapruder
“Software-industry battles are fought by highly paid and out-of-shape nerds furiously pounding computer keyboards while they guzzle diet Coke. The stakes aren't very dramatic. Life? Liberty? The pursuit of happiness? Nope, it's about stock options.” LibertyIndustryBattleShapesComputerPaidPursuitDietsDramaticSoftwareStakesNerdPursuit Of HappinessCokeKeyboardsDiet CokeStock OptionsDramatic LifeComputer Keyboards Author:Nathan Myhrvold
“A god's relationship to the world, even a world in which he was walking, was about as emotionally connected as that of a computer gamer playing with knowledge of the overall shape of the game and armed with a complete set of cheat codes.” WorldGamesWalkingShapesComputerConnectedCodeCheatGamer Book:Anansi Boys Source: Anansi Boys