I noticed a [url=http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,56578,00.html]semi-interesting article[/url] on [url=http://www.wired.com]Wired.com[/url] titled [i]Baby, Friend, Pet: That’s My Mac[/i]. The story recounts the statements of one Geoffrey Miller, among others, who is an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico.
Dr. Miller claims that the new flat-panel iMac “…taps into a [fostering] response the same way a healthy but needy infant does…[having] a big head with a frail neck and body. These are all the cues a healthy human infant might give. It says, ‘I’ve got a big brain so I’m worth taking care of, but I’ve got a little neck so I need nurturing. Don’t abandon me for a Dell PC’ “.
I for one have never thought of any iMac as “having a big brain” and thus being worthy of being cared for…and I hate to think what implications this statement has about the rest of Dr. Miller’s thinking. Are we to assume that a small brain is not worthy of being cared for? If that is the case, iMacs are never going to make it in a world of big bad Dell PCs (or multiprocessor G4s for that matter).
Dr. Miller doesn’t even appear to know his head from his ass, figuratively speaking, considering that the iMac’s “brain” is actually located in its supposedly frail body, while what he calls its “head” is really nothing more than the monitor…which, perhaps contrary to popular anthropomorphic belief, merely provides a visual representation of the computer’s output…the human equivalent of which would be, well, dirty diapers, if we are to keep up the “iMac as baby” metaphor.
The article goes on to summarize some additional psychologists’ takes on the popularity of Apple computers, who list both conscious and unconscious reasons for their success. One thing that isn’t mentioned is that Apple computers make up [url=http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0207/03.marketshare.php]only about 3-4% of the computing market[/url] both in the United States and worldwide.
If nothing else, this article on Wired gives me hope; it demonstrates that no matter how wacky your area of studies, academia will almost always provide you with a home. That’s good news for me! 🙂