Engineers love their animal metaphors, and I am no exception. The quickest way to get me to read about a new technology is to claim it’s based on how some sort of obscure creature gathers stones. However I have always thought there is a distinct hierarchy to the animals of tech: actually useful things are based on bugs, slugs, and other such slimy organisms, while anything that references a large charismatic predator like a tiger or a shark is almost certainly a scam (these are also the favourite animals of venture capitalists, naturally)
(more…)Author: Hannah Eberle
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In Defense of Dumb Machines
A couple of years ago, my mum asked me to take a look at her new hearing aids. Despite being more powerful (and expensive) than her last pair by a large margin, she simply could not understand how it decided which sounds to amplify and which were “background noise” to filter out, leaving her with the constant feeling she might be missing something.
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