Is it really there?

Computers have tried to work their way around this problem with what Windows calls "shortcuts". How might we define a shortcut? It's actually a bit more complicated than it might seem. If we maneuver around our hard drives with the aid of icons, a shortcut is an icon that doesn't really "contain" the file we want, but only the path to it. But the "original" icon doesn't "contain" that file either. It's also a metaphor - simply one that's perhaps one step less removed from "the real thing".

The Wikipedia entry on Computer shortcut tells us, perhaps rather cryptically, that:

Computer shortcuts are small files containing only the location of another file.

but of course this suggests that the non-shortcut icon contains something more than just the location. Perhaps we might say that the "original" icon resides where we "logically" assume the file to be located, while the "shortcut" is located somewhere else. But this is, again, giving a physical definition to something that isn't really physically present.

Ultimately, it seems that the difficulty in defining a shortcut (rather than, perhaps, describing what it does) is a function of using inadequate metaphors from the outset.

Go to: But you can, you can!