> Personally, I think we should not personify our computing hardware. It's a tool, not your friend. Humans personify everything they interact with -- including

> Personally, I think we should not personify our computing hardware. It's a tool, not your friend. Humans personify everything they interact with -- including simple hand tools. We like one better than the other; it feels like it has a personality. Of course, we know, intellectually, that it doesn't, but that doesn't matter. We're hardwired for judging and feeling personalities. And faces. That's why car look like they have "faces" on the front and why people have historically referred to vehicles like ships, boats, and cars as if they are (at least) simple beasts rather than just things. Computers are by far the most complex tool the typical person uses, and we treat interaction with a computer much like we treat interaction with a person from a psychological perspective. That's why it's so infuriating when a computer fails to respond to input -- it's the same mechanism that gets triggered when you're talking to a person who looks at you but doesn't acknowledge you in any way. Apple isn't trying to make the computer your friend, it's honoring the implicit personification you're doing anyway.