A Mismatch of Technology

"...every innovation must pass through a primary phase in which the new effect is secured by the old method, amplified or modified by some new feature."

Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media.

During World War Two, the Polish cavalry charged a fleet of German tanks.
A computer drawing is also a mismatch of technology.
The previous comparison of the Computer and the Drawing Board is a mismatch.
It assumes the computer and the drawing board are ‘equivalents’ to each other.
Two misconceptions support this view.
One, the drawings from the computer and the drawing board ‘appear’ to be the same.
Compare a painting by Picasso and a print of Picasso.
Which would you prefer to own?
'Looking the same' and 'being the same' are different.
'Doing a drawing' and 'doing a computer' are different.
One is converted to be 'like' the other.
To be a computer or to be 'like' a drawing board.
Imitation is a sacrifice of possibility.
Two, the comparison is biased in favour of the drawing board.
Would you evaluate an athlete's ability to run a marathon by having her race over 100 metres?


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