Beyond The Beige Box

Science fiction has given us amazing glimpses of the future of computing. Early on, it was big, intelligent, self-aware computers--Heinlein's Gay Deceiver, Clarke's HAL--that later gave way to ubiquitous computing environments--Stephenson's Metaverse, Gibson's Cyberspace. Throughout, the lasting stories focused on not just the technology, but on the interaction; how it makes us more--or less--human, how it changes our perception and control of our environment. How we go about our daily lives.

And while technology is very good at mimicking real life, let's face it: Technology is still too cumbersome in a lot of ways. It's still easier to pick up a pulp TV Guide than to start up the computer, log on, and find the same information on the Web. It's easier to flip through a print magazine than its digital analog or to call a restaurant rather than making a reservation online. We're lazy, human beings; we'll take the easier route despite any preferred enhanced possibilities.

Neil Gaiman, a British Sci-Fi fantasy author, nailed it in telling Wired magazine, "I am looking forward to the time when I can write a novel with something that looks like a fountain pen and a piece of paper, but lets me save, store, send, et cetera." [Wired 8.01]

It's a subtle shift in perception: We don't want computers that mimic real life, computers and languages and applications that we have to learn to do what we want to do. We just want to go about our business, letting the computer work in the background to make it easier, faster, or cheaper for us to do so things.

The desktop metaphor, with its files, folders and drawers, its file types, structures, applications and data, forces us to adapt how we think, how we go about doing stuff, in the digital realm. It's the price of admission. If you want the extra benefits made possible over a typewriter you have to learn how to use a word processor.

Metaphor has its place, certainly. It translates things foreign into terms and situations more familiar. It helps us be comfortable amidst the uncomfortable. But taken too far or too long, metaphor becomes just something else to learn. It becomes just another entry fee. Maybe the solution isn't in getting a new metaphor. Maybe the solution is in getting rid of the metaphor all together.

Charlie Smith unlocks his front door, walks in. The hall and kitchen lights are on and the air conditioning has cooled the house to his preferred temperature, as it's Wednesday and Charlie usually gets home around this time on Wednesday. He picks up a datapad; there are two email messages from his mother. He sends them to the screen in his home office; he'll read them later. A reminder appears--his daughter's play is a week from tonight. His calendar at work is updated, clearing his afternoon schedule to leave early that day. Charlie's wife will be home late and his daughter has rehearsal, so he's on his own for dinner. He queries and the fridge offers some suggestions based on his past choices and what's on hand. He calls up the latest new release by a favorite band and queries the television to save the news broadcast until 30 minutes later--he's hungry and wants to make dinner first.

This is ubiquitous, instant, activity-based computing. It's in real time, on the user's terms and in the user's language. This is technology getting out of the way. This is what Amiga's out to do. Amiga wants to redefine how people interact with computers--perhaps even redefine the concept of the computer itself. "If you don't know computers, they all look the same," says Fleecy Moss, VP of Development at Amiga Inc. "Ours will look very different."

How so? Well, we're stuck with the flat screen interface for now, but beyond that, nearly anything goes. The look can be what you want it to be, customized to how you want to interact with it, related to the task at hand, not rigidly bound to some style guide. You can even make an Amiga look and feel just like a classic Workbench, though that's a bit akin to using a Ferrari just for grocery runs.

Eventually, the desktop computer as a central pillar will yield to remote, distributed systems--a black box, if you will, acting as a central nervous system and communication gateway for the home computing environment much like what a circuit breaker box does for electricity in your basement today. Booting up and logging on will be replaced by an always-available Internet connection, again just as in electrical service today. No one wonders anymore, if I plug in this hair dryer will it work? If I pick up the phone, will there be a dial tone? It just is. The technology has gotten out of the way and we're freed to live beyond it.

It won't happen tomorrow, but some of the steps will, and are now. The new Amiga will be a departure from how many perceive computers. Sure, a physical box will be available for the 'power users' to hack away at, but it's the software and the concepts behind that software that will make the machine truly remarkable, enabling us to move beyond the confines of the desktop workstation. This notion that a computer can be anything other than a box on the desk will be hard for some to understand--many are uncomfortable without a keyboard under the fingers--but many more will be in blissful, effective ignorance of how the system works. They'll only know--and care--that it does.

ARexx was revolutionary in giving the Amiga 'typeless data,' freeing us to manipulate it however we needed. The new Amiga will expand that concept to the operating system. Separating applications from the data, and the data from the structure, frees us from having to think like a computer just to use one. No more file formats or file types or concerns about file systems. You know your data in terms of what it is to you--pictures, text, sound, video, whatever. It's all digital content. Separating the presentation from the process lets it look like anything you want it to look like, customizable to the task at hand. Call it WYWIWYG: what you want is what you get. Don't describe the interface in terms of what it looks like, describe it in terms of what you're after.

Resource sharing across networks is a simple example of presenting resources and services as brokerages. In a brokerage, sellers hawk their service, quality, speed of delivery, or special deals. Buyers pick the best choices for their needs. The Amiga will bring this concept to the local machine, universalizing the way devices communicate among themselves, the core OS and the user. Intelligent, dynamic querying will move beyond limited keyword-based to context-based interaction. Find what I mean, not what I say. Tell a mobile unit; I am here. Where's a good place to eat nearby?

Sure, a lot of this is possible today, with existing technology. But it's cumbersome, diverse, and expensive. And we're still lazy, so Amiga will put it all together and make it easy to use.

So the Amiga will change how we perceive the personal computer. It will change how we interact with our information and data, how we affect the environment around us. It won't be understood or appreciated by everyone, at least not at first. It will get out of the way, allowing the most direct connection yet between our imagination and the media. Hmm. Maybe from that standpoint, the new Amiga won't be so different than the original one after all.

Amiga is making it possible, so get ready for the future.