patchythepirate

One thing I think Apple could do better with is mental health, particularly trauma/ptsd, which is so closely tied to physiology, including heart rate. People don’t realize that most triggers are subconscious; monitoring for accelerations in heart rate could be very helpful for people to identify and become more mindful of triggers, monitor for nightmares, anticipate panic attacks so people can take helpful medication (e.g. propranolol), etc. 

I have two, no, three responses to that:

1) It looks awesome and I want it.

2) It's about as close to perfection for its purpose as you can get, aesthetically and functionally. In an imperfect world, especially one that has been getting more imperfect and chaotic by the minute, having something that is close to being objectively perfect brings me brief moments of peace (of mind), which are otherwise rare and elusive. In a world where unchecked subjectivity is leading people to the extremes of abstracted, vapid convictions, it's cathartic to know that there are some things out there that have objective meaning and purpose.

3) A good analogy to explain how these things are meaningful is architecture, particularly the failure of American Moderinist architecture, which believed that humans only need a bare minimum of functionality for their environment. Notoriously, architects would even go into homes that they already built and sold in order to remove "unnecessary" decorations placed there by the owners. This is, of course, antithetical to human nature. Yes, for purely pragmatic purposes, all we need for a work or living space is a 7' cube. But, we are not pragmatic beings. We are imbued with an innate urge to seek out forms that are intuitive and ascribe to universal traits of beauty. The simplicity and symmetry of the remote helps us better organize the controls in our mind and puts our mind more at ease. The contrast of the black buttons against the bright aluminum has a similar effect. The heft, and the use of a strong substance such as aluminum gives a sense of substance and durability. Even the Ancient Greeks, 2,500 years ago, knew these things about human nature, which is why the added refinements to their temples, such as entasis (a slight bulge, nearly imperceptible, in the middle of a column, which satisfies our intuitive expectation that the columns are truly carrying the immense weight of the cornices above them). Just like with architecture, and just like with most things in life, these traits mostly skip over our conscious awareness; but, we still sense them. We experience a certain feeling when using an Apple product, just like we experience a certain feeling when we enter a well-designed building.

These are the reasons why I love, rather than merely like, Apple products. And I'm incredibly grateful that there is a company out there that not only has the ability, but also the willingness, to make products like this, even if it costs a bit more.