Michael Crichton Essay – Mac Computers

Here’s a find I’m very happy to share.

Recently I was reading the Walter Isaacson biography on Steve Jobs. I remembered that Michael Crichton was a Mac user. (Check out the tribute from Macworld.)

After some digging, I discovered (in a web archive) an essay that Michael Crichton had written about the Mac for the Apple website.

Two excerpts:

Why have I been so loyal to Macs?
One important reason is they’re better designed. By which I mean simpler — simple design is always the most difficult to achieve. I want objects in my environment to be simple and clear, because I don’t want to be bothered figuring out a coffee maker or a TV remote. In fact, I refuse to be bothered.

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But let’s face it, I make my living on a computer. I spend all day in front of it. And in the end, the real reason I prefer Macs is because they stimulate my creativity more than other machines.

It’s difficult to say why this occurs, exactly. For one thing, they reek of innovation, and when I sit in front of one, I feel innovative, too. I like working on them. They’re playful, they don’t take themselves too seriously.
And I do a lot of playing around when I work.

I’m very grateful to late great Steve Jobs and the brilliant folks at Apple for what they contributed to the work of Michael Crichton.

Computer Downtime

Last week I lost my Internet connection. It was very disconcerting. I felt as though I had been thrown into a virtual prison and placed in solitary confinement. I had to run to the library to check my email (and, all right, put in an appearance in my online games).

I hadn’t noticed how accustomed I’ve become to online interaction. It occurred to me that I have dozens of friends with whom I cannot communicate any other way except online. If something happens to me, my family will need to email them or post something on Facebook. Otherwise many of my friends would never know where I went. I’ve had a friend or two with severe health problems who I suspect may have died as they abruptly stopped emailing. (Unless I seriously offended them somehow.)

Conversely, when the earthquake hit Japan I ran to Facebook to see if a friend of mine who lives there was okay. (He was.)

So while I could have worked offline on the computer, I decided it would be a good time to reread Electronic Life: How to Think About Computers. Michael Crichton published the book in 1983, and parts of it are obsolete. But the bulk of the book is Crichton’s exploration of the philosophy behind computers and our use of them.

As Crichton explained:

I began to realize that first-time computer users needed help with something not covered in most books and manuals - namely, an attitude to take toward this new kind of machine. How to think about computers, not just how to use them.

In Electronic Life, Crichton discusses computers with his usual prescience so it’s not surprising that most of the book is relevant to thinking about computers 28 years later.

Two of the entries made me smile when thinking about my recent technological mishap.

Down
Computers, like boxers and airplanes, go down when they fail. They are also said to crash or bomb out. The sudden violence implicit in such terms should be taken seriously. This slang originates with hard-core computer technicians. They know what they’re talking about.” (p. 69, paperback edition)

Error Messages
...Listen to your machine. It’s doing the best it can. (p. 72)