Archive Home Page Posted 12/07/97
I recoginize that I'm coming into this thread a little late but there is a technology differentiation that mysteriously has gotten very little attention.
Wintel is very "diseased" in comparison to the Mac. There are thousands of Wintel virus yet less than 50 for the Mac. Mac's just don't get sick as often as Wintel. In fact almost every Wintel innovation (Word Macros, Active X) is for some reason a breeding ground for new virus... Who knows maybe someday we'll thank Wintel for this... The Macintosh for no particularily rational reason is very "Disease Free".
The other thing you might want to address is the "inevitability" issue. Every technology in existance today is potentially a single breakthru away from obsolescence. Historically Wintel is just a little blip in the vast sweep of history and they have pretty thoroughly alligned themselves with with the historical impulses of power, control, and machivellian scheming. Whether that kind of impulse is inevitable of course depends on your view of the world.
Here's a more mystical or symbolic take on "inevitability"...
It was fascinating last month to watch Wall Street quake at the approach of the Emperor of the Sun (on his way to freedom shrines) , footsteps eminating from the Asian markets. But even more fascinating was what the first footstep revealed hidden below the surface. Apple rising. Power neutral. For some reason I associated this event with the recent Singapore Airline ad showing the woman rising like a phoenix from the fire. Perhaps because of the image associated with the original Macintosh. And then another association, from another Singapore Airline ad:
"How will you get there? Does it matter? Yes, it matters."
Sounds like one of those touch feely Apple ads. And then it ran deep....
"The old voice of the ocean, the bird-chatter of little rivers,
(Winter has given them gold for silver
To stain their water and bladed green for brown to line their banks)
From different throats intone one language.
So I believe if we were strong enough to listen without
Divisions of desire and terror
To the storm of the sick nations, the rage of the hunger-smitten cities,
Those voices would also be found
Clean as a child's; or like some girl's breating who dances alone
By the ocean shore, dreaming of lovers
"Natural Music"
"But a child's sob in the darkness curses deeper than the wrath of the angry man"
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning