Raw

Stumbled on this by Donald Norman in some of Edward Tufte's material about PowerPoint :

Technology is not neutral. Technology has properties--affordances--that make it easier to do some activities, harder to do others: The easier ones get done, the harder ones neglected. Each has its constraints, preconditions, and side effects that impose requirements and changes on the things with which it interacts, be they other technology, people, or human society at large. Finally, each technology poses a mind-set, a way of thinking about it and the activities to which it is relevant, a mind-set that soon pervades those touched by it, often unwittingly, often unwillingly. The more successful and widespread the technology, the greater its impact upon the thought patterns of those who use it, and consequently, the greater its impact upon all of society. Technology is not neutral, it dominates.

- Norman, Donald A., Things that Make Us Smart, Perseus Books, 1993, p. 243

It nicely expresses what I've been trying to say in my periodic rants about the tyranny of the browser. Tufte's application of the above to PowerPoint is lovely, now rather than handwaving I can point to something concrete that also blinkers our way of looking at information.

The Web browser as we currently know it has evolved to interact with the Web in a way that's been influenced by perceptions of what the Web is and can be (for example, that it's largely read-only). There's a feedback loop; it's self-perpetuating. There are clear advantages for Web publishers and users in the convergence in the way browsers behave, but this is at the cost of innovation.

Incidentally, Tufte is now a sculptor.