I have just been reading Wisdom, Information & Wonder by Mary Midgley, which was published in 1991.
Midgley was concerned with, among other things, the way in which developments in computing were adding to our ability to store vast amounts of information at the same time as knowledge was being fragmented by academic over-specialisation at the expense of considering the important question of how to acquire wisdom.
The problem is not one of a lack of sufficient intelligence, which could, as some argue, be rectified by drugs or genetic manipulation, but of insufficient use of the intelligence we already have.
In one seemingly heartfelt sentence she complains of “intelligence running to waste down special sinks designed for it, called computer games.”
Well there are plenty who complain about those, but I think they are quite wrong. Of course obsession is rarely good, but games & the obsession with ways to make them ever ‘better’ have led to many developments on which superior, less shackled, intelligences now rely.
For example, the 40 best cultural apps trumpeted in Saturday’s Times; animations & visualisations of all kinds that were, possibly, not even dreamt of when I went on my first computer course.
Even in those early days programmers were obsessed with pictures – a portrait of Marilyn Monroe, or one of a Ferrari, produced on a lineprinter using just O & X were especially popular. I remember being grateful for the advice that it was better to give staff a recognised allowance – say ½ hour a week – of free (but expensive) computer time for playing, rather than attempt to ban it all together. That way you could keep a lid on the amount that they ‘wasted’ by threatening real punishment if they went over the limit.
It is hard now to remember how computing used to be very much a virtual procedure, much of which existed purely inside your head. Output was just strings of characters which acquired meaning only via your interpretation.
I would be prepared to make the argument that the screen is the single most important invention which has made it possible for computers to be used directly by so many millions as part of their daily lives. The screen gives you a representation of what is going on inside the computer, gives you an idea of what sort of information you are required to give it, & can produce all sorts of pictures to explain the results of your efforts.
Even harder to remember the long arguments we had about whether we should introduce a screen-based system for those whose job was purely data-entry, or whether the extra layers of programming would introduce unacceptable risks of error
