| Sumario: | The writer discusses how computer programs in the 1980s began to replace complex computer commands with easy-to-use metaphors, such as using everyday things in the office to stand for computer functions, and he argues that this trend should be controlled. He discusses the origins of terms such as the “information superhighway” and “cyberspace” and efforts to define such terms, and he argues that whereas metaphors are powerful tools to help the uninitiated to understand the complex, they can quickly get in the way. He considers the solution of making metaphors optional, but suggests that using metaphors sparingly would be a better idea, and he notes that the next generation of computer operating-system interfaces from Microsoft and Netscape is dispensing with most metaphors in favor of something more like typical text-and-image Web pages.
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