Qualitative States

This post is about qualitative states. Qualitative states are often (although not uniquely) expressed as "the X of Y" where X is a sense, (like smell, taste, or feel) and Y is something that exists out there in the world. Examples: The smell of a rose, The taste of wine, The feel of getting stung by a bee. Most people would avow that they are familiar with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of these states. "Yeah, of course I know what the smell of a rose is like." Upon deeper inspection though, I think that people are not really as familiar with these states as they lead themselves to believe.

Ask someone to describe the smell of a rose, they will probably give adjectives such as flowery, pleasant, or refreshing. These adjectives don't really seem to describe the scent itself, but are more just labels used to classify scents. Compare this to asking someone to describe something concrete, say, a table. hard, wooden, brown. These adjectives are not just labels, but are actually inherent qualities of the table itself.

Phrased another way, if you group all the things in the world that are hard, and pretend for a minute that they don't exist, there would still be a definition for hard. Hard can be defined independently of things that are hard.

Now take the word refreshing and group all the things in the world together that are refreshing and pretend for a minute that they don't exist. Would you be able to define refreshing without reference to something else that is refreshing? I think not. Try this thought experiment with other adjectives and you'll see that this pattern remains consistent.

So what's the point? Basically, my point is that we don't have the access to our own qualitative states like we think we do. We think we know what The smell of a rose is like but really all we can do is vaguely compare it to everything else we have smelled before. This leads to the intuition that qualitative states actually don't exist at all, but more on that later.

Microsoft's Comeback?

Microsoft is seen as an outdated company that makes software that doesn't really work. People associate them with crashing computers, programs that take forever to load, and slow internet connections. Often times people tell me how much they hate Windows Vista; but if I ask them if they've ever actually used Vista before, they usually admit that they've either never used it, or have just played around with it maybe once or twice.  They usually can't point out specific problems with the OS except for maybe "Program X doesn't work on it", where X is some 3rd party software that Microsoft has nothing to do with. 

I've been wondering why Microsoft has been so silent while Apple rags on them day in and day out with their "I'm a PC/I'm a Mac" commercials. They have been doing a phenomenal job perpuating the stereotype that machines running Vista are horrible. It's great to see that Microsoft has finally responded.

I think their "I'm a PC, and I've been made into a Stereotype" ad campaign is a huge step in the right direction for the image of the company. Microsoft really can't try to convince people that they're 'hip' like they've tried to do in previous ad campaigns. (By the way, whoever decided that hiring Jerry Seinfeld is a good way to make the company seem modern should be fired.) Their only hope was to make themselves appear as if they're the OS used by people who actually get stuff done, and not just want their computers to look pretty. I think people will see these commercials and start to reconsider Microsoft as a company that makes good reliable software that tons of people use.

I believe that if Microsoft wants to push forward, they need to show pictures of their OS working in their commercials. If you have seen Vista before, you probably agree that the graphical user interface is stunning. It is just as beautiful, if not more beautiful then Apple's OS. I think people still think of clunky Windows XP when they think of Microsoft and that's something the company needs to change.

I'm interested to see where Microsoft goes with their ad campaign and how the image of the company will change.