MIT271: Technology and Human Values

Thursday, February 12, 2002

Machine Beauty

AdministrationLecture slides are available on the

webpage before class.Term paper: general instructions and a

first suggested topic available in the next week.

Second test: study questions will be handed out Thursday February 21

Review:What is beauty?

1. SUBJECTIVE: a simple intuitive property (a particular sort of pleasant experience)

2. OBJECTIVE: a property of objects that produces a particular sort of pleasure

3. SOMETHING ELSE: anything that produces a particular sort of pleasure

David Gelernter’s Machine BeautyMAIN POINT: Aesthetics is as important

to technology as scienceSalginatobel Bridge (Maillart 1930)

Gelernter’s view of beauty: “There is no way to demonstrate its

presence. What we can do is point out some of the telltales of simplicity and power.” (p. 33)

“Truth and rightness meter”Necessary to scienceDrives revolutions in computers

Machine BeautyMachine beauty depends on (or equals?):

simplicity combined with power A combination of beauty definitions? (1)

subjective? and (2) objective? or (3) other?

Hoover Dam Empire S. B.

Gelernter considers:

MACHINE BEAUTY Sensual appeal Concerns motion or

logical progression

More abstract types require considerable knowledge

ARTISTIC BEAUTY Sensual appeal Progression is part of

musical and narrative beauty

Always has some immediate appeal

Rightness “Inevitability illusion” (p.7) Naturalism “Every line serves a purpose, every detail is

an indispensable part of the balanced whole.” (p.14)

Simplicity and power support each other (p.15)

“Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity.” It will allow us to “break free of the computer.” (p.22)

Deep Beauty Beautiful in more

that one way Breuer’s 1920’s

“Cesca” chair

Paradox of beautyWe know that machine beauty is

crucially important but refuse to acknowledge it.

Dichotomy between science and beauty

SCIENCE Objective Logical Analytic Austere Esoteric Highly specialized Masculine

ART/BEAUTY

Beauty urge drives scienceGödel’s TheoremMaxwell’s equationsFeynmanWittgenstein

(some conflation of motive with result)