Transparent Computing
The Computer as Tool
When writing a story by hand, the writer spends no time at all thinking about her pen. The pen just works and she just writes. The pen is a tool. The pen is a tool that allows the writer to write transparently, without thinking about the process of using a pen.
When they're in the zone, a writer will tell you they were so unaware of the pen, the paper, where they were, anything but the words—they no longer "see" the pen—it had, for all intents and purposes, disappeared.
Computers are Merely Tools
Computers are tools, too, and we should be able to use them in the same fashion—transparently, without thinking about them or "seeing" them. Transparent computing is not a piece of hardware or software; it is a matter of training.
That same writer, at a computer and in the zone, doesn't see the keyboard or the mouse or even the monitor, per se—just the words. For them, the computer has become transparent.
Using the Computer Instead of Being Used by It
Using a computer transparently improves your efficiency and allows you to think about the work at hand instead of the technology. Once you reach a state of transparent computing, then you're using the computer instead of it using you.
Computer textbooks succeed at showing you the how-to, but fail when it comes to putting all these procedures in context. This is why so many students (computer or otherwise) forget what they've learned—they don't understand how what they've learned fits into the overall pattern.
In a transparent computing environment, all the steps you need to know to complete your work flow naturally, without thought or effort. In a transparent computing training program, users are taught to not think about the computer—just to use it.
A State of Mind and Being
Transparent computing does not rely on any specific piece of hardware or software, but is a compination of hardware, software and training.
It does require a stable computing environment; if your computer continually crashes or freezes, it'll take you right out of the zone. If you upgrade or maintain your old computer, keeping it in tip-top condition or you'll be one step further on the road to Transparent Computing.
Updated: November 18, 2005