The new technologies always raises questions about their affordances and I agree with the author that designers should start rethinking what’s made available for us through these new technologies and how it can be utilized in their designs. These technologies not only changed how we interact with each other and it also changed how we interact with our environment, therefore I agree that it’s very important for designers to step back and rethink. As you mentioned in your critique the author is not talking about the users emotions, but I don’t think it’s a disregard, I believe it can be a topic for another paper or chapter in the book. After all we have seen during bauhaus how the use or absence of use of color and form can also have a dehumanizing effect on people. (Wolfe, 1981) And it’s important to take emotions into consideration when designing.

Your example about “Form Follows Function”, and “Why do we need big meeting rooms in the office?” are strong evidences to support that we are (in many circumstances) living in cyber space, and we do not realize we are living.

Last summer, I visited my friend who works with a digital firm in Silicon Valley. I was amazed by the interior design of his house. Since he mostly works from home. His small office (in his house) has been equipped by ICT and office supplies, supporting him to work from home. This small room looks bigger with the space of virtual world. And it possibly substitutes many square feet from the office at Silicon Valley.

I am interested to see how people see and live in their homes (together with cyber world). It must be fun.

I really like your idea that we, in fact, possess ONE identity, the ‘aspiring-self’ one. Maybe that is true. There is just ONE of us and we always strive to be better (hopefully) and that is part of who we are. Given different situations, such as trying to get a job, we will kind of “exaggerate” on our CVs as a person we are continuously striving to become. And at some point maybe you don’t even know it but you have become that person!

I like how you flip identity and raise its value and rarity. Marketing really plays a role on originality, and by extension, identity. It’s as if we’re conned into liking copies of copies without an original. This is quite an interesting conundrum!