InvisibleLink #5: You Can Almost See Them if You Squint

The Silicon Zoo

Computers are cultural icons; no one really disputes this, I'd imagine. They are (or have become) symbols of our modern society--fast, interconnected, and functional. Terry Gilliam's Brazil presents one possible interpretation of the type of world the computer could help create--workers, locked away in tiny cells, produce meaningless data that only serve to control their own lives to an even more extreme degree. And yet Brazil is only one prediction how the computer might eventually affect society. The original Macintosh ad of 1984 sought to break down the very image that Brazil presents, a year before the film was even released; the Macintosh ad argues for the exact opposite, in fact, of Brazil's totalitarian, machinist dystopia. The hammer breaking the Big Brother screen is meant to free the individual--to offer him or her a personal computer with which to make his or her own choices and decisions.

The personal computer (and related products that depend on microprocessors) has become essentially an extension of one's personality, just like a car or a cell phone. It is a visual advertisement to others of the owner's tastes, social and financial status. Surprisingly though, laptops and desktops, with the notable exception of Apple computers, have remained largely similar. One personalizes a computer by how one uses it (one's selection of wallpaper, programs, etc.) moreso than how the computer itself looks. Computers, by and large, have remained fairly stagnant in design and decoration.

At least, so we presume. As The Silicon Zoo demonstrates, our computers are often more foreign to us than we think, but not necessarily anonymous or impersonal. But does the invisible element on the hardware make it more personal to the creators than to us, the owners? Surely a microprocessor with a wedding announcement rather than a corporate logo becomes something more than simply a cold conglomeration of metal and silicon? And possibly more personal than whatever background image we use on the screen?