Turing Complete User is an interesting essay on the impact of transparent interface design/invisible technology by Olia Lialina which has just been posted through the nettime-l mailing list.

The following are the first two paragraphs:

Computers are getting invisible. They shrink and hide. They lurk under the skin and dissolve in the cloud. We observe the process like an eclipse of the sun, partly scared, partly overwhelmed. We divide into camps and fight about advantages and dangers of The Ubiquitous. But whatever side we take — we do acknowledge the significance of the moment.

With the disappearance of the computer, something else is silently becoming invisible as well — the User. Users are disappearing as both phenomena and term, and this development is either unnoticed or accepted as progress — an evolutionary step.

The full essay is online here: http://contemporary-home-computing.org/turing-complete-user/

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