I’d argue that convergence _is_ soulless-ness and cars present a great example of the point.
The “soul” of something that is inanimate is the qualities that make it memorable or stick it in our mind with some manner of tactility. Not literal tactility but the nature of how you can visualize something so clearly it’s almost like you can touch it in your mind.
I’m getting a bit spacey here but let’s get concrete: Jeremy Clarkson often posited that a car tended lacked soul if it was refined and well put together. Often, he felt like older Italian cars, with all of their questionable design decisions were very soulful, because they reflect the fact that people, fallible human beings built it. It was a product of them, as much as a piece of art is purely a product of its artist. It’s why a Van Gogh has soul but a Van Gogh replica does not.
The effort to make things perfect and completely refined with no strange decisions removes the humanity from them. Renders them soulless.
I think of Nader’s Unsafe at any speed which pointed out how numerous stylistic features in old cars were dangerous: for instance you could get spiked by a hood ornament, slashed by tail fins, etc.
People tend to think of cars as an old technology but cars are under intense regulatory (and commercial, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance_Institute_for_Highwa...) pressure on issues like safety, emissions, noise, and fuel economy. A narrowbody airliner today can be based on a 1967 design with almost-state-of-the-art engines and nowhere-near-state-of-the-art avionics and control systems but there is no room on our roads for a new car based on a 1967 design.
With all of the requirements acting on cars it is little wonder that looks go by the wayside.
Yes, I agree. My point is more akin to addressing why it happens in a somewhat different context than the article which states it's driven by customer subjective taste.
I'm saying it can also be driven by something else. There are probably only a few major players in the automotive aerodynamic software design space. Unlike the days when the design was driven by an artist with a block of clay, I suspect modern designs are often based on the same computer driven models with the same underlying physics. The software is probably a more refined and optimized approach, but this results in a convergence in looks and a lack of that idiosyncratic "soul"
We have troubles at work dealing with more than ~50 souls in our monkeysphere. Do we really benefit from 100 or more souls in our homes, one for every appliance and piece of furniture?
I agree that convergence is soullessness, both on the part of the producer and consumer who is choosing the default or merely practical. That's fine for those who only see cars as a means of transportation. A 'better looking' (according to those 'with taste') shape of a car doesn't have to cost more intrinsically. The reason we have many similar, not so great looking cars is because it's not a primary filter for sales volume. Something that paints outside convergent lines, is however a reason why a potential buyer would not buy it.
Poor quality can give a car a kind of personality, but that's not the soul of it. The same car could be reliable and have the same soul. The main difference is whether it is developed to a specific vision, or if checking boxes and aggregated by committee.
The “soul” of something that is inanimate is the qualities that make it memorable or stick it in our mind with some manner of tactility. Not literal tactility but the nature of how you can visualize something so clearly it’s almost like you can touch it in your mind.
I’m getting a bit spacey here but let’s get concrete: Jeremy Clarkson often posited that a car tended lacked soul if it was refined and well put together. Often, he felt like older Italian cars, with all of their questionable design decisions were very soulful, because they reflect the fact that people, fallible human beings built it. It was a product of them, as much as a piece of art is purely a product of its artist. It’s why a Van Gogh has soul but a Van Gogh replica does not.
The effort to make things perfect and completely refined with no strange decisions removes the humanity from them. Renders them soulless.