progress

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Is the Mac back or on its way out?

Apple recently held a big event in which it updated a number of its non-iPhone products, namely the MacBook Air, the Mac Mini, and the iPad Pro. 

For the first two, this update is the first in several years.  As Will Oremus points out in his take on the event, this fact cannot help but suggest that these devices are on their way out:

But for the Macs, it feels less like a golden age than the golden years.

In our class on Design & Society, we discuss the so-called dilemma of progress.  With any design whose introduction poses potential risk, there is a decision to make on how to regulate it.  In simplest terms, there are two possibilities:

  1. Permissive: introduce the new design until such time as it proves to be overly harmful, or
  2. Precautionary: restrict the new design until such time as it proves to be acceptably safe.

Under conditions of uncertainty, it can be difficult to know which strategy is best.