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On the Humble Default

Posted by kdawson on from the ne-pas-décider-c'est-décider dept.

Hugh Pickens sends along Kevin Kelly's paean to the default. "One of the greatest unappreciated inventions of modern life is the default. 'Default' is a technical concept first used in computer science in the 1960s to indicate a preset standard. ... Today the notion of a default has spread beyond computer science to the culture at large. It seems such a small thing, but the idea of the default is fundamental... It's hard to remember a time when defaults were not part of life. But defaults only arose as computing spread; they are an attribute of complex technological systems. There were no defaults in the industrial age. ... The hallmark of flexible technological systems is the ease by which they can be rewired, modified, reprogrammed, adapted, and changed to suit new uses and new users. Many (not all) of their assumptions can be altered. The upside to endless flexibility and multiple defaults lies in the genuine choice that an individual now has, if one wants it. ... Choices materialize when summoned. But these abundant choices never appeared in fixed designs. ... In properly designed default system, I always have my full freedoms, yet my choices are presented to me in a way that encourages taking those choices in time — in an incremental and educated manner. Defaults are a tool that tame expanding choice."

7 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. Bollocks by tonyr60 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Default was first used in computer science in the 1960s because that is when computer science, as we knew it, began. It was picked up from common usage outside of computer science, and was general use well before then. Unfortunately I am old enough to remember it as a common term in the 1950s. For example the default land area for a house (at least in my part of the world) was a quarter of an acre and it used to be referred to as the default area.

  2. Bah-loney by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't subscribe to his crazy theory. If defaults are to be defined as a configurable initial state, then they've been around for a lot longer than he's claiming. He's just writing for the sake of reading his own words.

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    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    1. Re:Bah-loney by stephanruby · · Score: 5, Funny

      As a French person, I resent what the author is implying. Defau(l)t is a french word. It means "inaction", "failure", or "inactive state". And if anybody invented "inaction", we certainly did. We have prior art. It's part of our cultural heritage. And you guys, you were just lucky that we even taught it to Great Britain in the twelve century, for without that specialized knowledge, that special concept of defaults would never even have arrived in America!!

    2. Re:Bah-loney by stephanruby · · Score: 5, Funny

      Heaven's no, that nasty word comes from Old English. We had nothing to do with that one.

  3. Re:Default is way older by BluBrick · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hell, even the spanish inquisition had a default verdict.

    Well, I didn't expect the spanish inquisition to come up in this context!

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    Ahh - My eye!
    The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
  4. Default is for wimps... by yourassOA · · Score: 5, Funny

    No real geek/nerd would ever even consider using the default settings. Only real men use the default, real geeks use their own settings. Thats why none of their shit works.

  5. Re:It's not my fault by GigaHurtsMyRobot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It should just default to AC saying 'First Post!'