Re: metaphors for cyberspace

Chris Hand (cph@dmu.ac.uk)
Tue, 11 Jun 1996 10:56:28 +0100 (BST)

Matthew Chalmers said:
> Metaphor leads us to something that isn't
> necessarily a one-to-one mapping from one type of structure or system to
> another. If we say "Jesse Owens was a gazelle" to describe his athletic
> prowess, I don't expect him to eat grass and wander the savannah being
> ever-wary of the threat of the magnificent but ferocious lion.

Of course... every metaphor must break down at some point
(else it wouldn't be a metaphor).

> Metaphor is a linguistic construct which, basically, we use with
> slackness. If it was too tight then it wouldn't be expressive enough.

Some would argue that metaphor goes beyond linguistics and is more
a tool for structuring thought.

It seems that the *useful* aspect of metaphors is that using them allows us
to communicate a certain amount of information to users about what they
can expect a system to do. In a similar way, a Virtual Environment
may present familiar affordances so a user of the system can make use of
knowledge and skills acquired previously/elsewhere.

How did we get onto this topic anyway? :)

Chris

-- 
Chris Hand, Senior Lecturer             | Dept of Computer Science,
e-mail: cph@dmu.ac.uk                   | De Montfort University, The Gateway 
   WWW: http://www.cms.dmu.ac.uk/~cph/  | LEICESTER, UK   LE1 9BH