Required reading: Reference: "Computing in Architectural Design”, Architecture’s New Media by Yehuda Kalay
The article presents one example in which the product of computer aided design is not merely only as good as the designer who operates it, but, on the contrary, is highly reliant on the sophisticated computations only feasibly performed by a computer whose “brain” is infinitely more equipped than that of a human’s to handle millions of variables.
I become suspicious when researchers start talking about intelligent computers because I think that idea that computers are infallible holds no credibility. It’s only because I’ve experienced too many instances where data is lost or where as a designer, I am trained to create graphics that are limited by my understanding of the software, or the limitations of the software itself. I hope there’s a day when computers become more interactive and when they truly become an environment (“place”) where ideas and concepts may be crafted and realized in real time without being inhibited by too many codes, rules, and prescribed fixes. Those, I believe, should be left to the human brain.
I like to imagine the growth of networks and the development of highly interactive interfaces where we can talk to computers, use touch screens where our fingers become our tools, not necessarily light pens or other instruments, a design environment that becomes more sensory than ever. I like to imagine the disappearance of the computer lab. Instead computers are always there, wherever we need them, but infinitely more robust than the average laptop. An interior designer shows up at a job site, gets out of her car and grabs her blue print tube out of the backseat. Instead of reaching in to retrieve a set of plans, she pulls out a soft roll of what looks like black rubber, lays it out flat on the table, where we realize it is an interactive touchpad, a high-res screen and computer all in one, capable of linking into a network, a remote hard drive/power source where all power and information is all transferred over airwaves.
Fantasies aside, my fear is living in a world where we think computers can do our jobs for us. I am recalling to mind a time recently when I went to Starbucks with a friend and ordered two coffees and two waters. After the cashier printed labels for our drinks, after the barista lost them and refused for twenty minutes to fill our order since there was no ticket for it, and after a manager tried to assuage us by offering us coupons for free drinks instead of listening to my criticism of their obviously fallible, “automated” system that encourages employees not to think for themselves, I walked away wondering, (at the young age of 28, mind you) “What is the world coming to?”
As computers and networks become more sophisticated, instructors and managers must become ever more adamant about teaching students to use their most valuable tool and design environment: their mind.
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