Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)(dougengelbart.org)
dougengelbart.org
Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html
2 comments
Thanks for the comment. Bret Victor referenced this paper in his essay [1] describing his vision. He loathed the idea of people simply calling him "The Inventor of the Computer Mouse"
[1] http://worrydream.com/#!/Engelbart
[1] http://worrydream.com/#!/Engelbart
Engelbart realized early on that the technology related to computing would increase in an exponential fashion and would bring about with it massive changes to society as we know it at every level. The problem is that human beings are not naturally adapted to live in an exponential world where everything is constantly changing, so how to we as a society adapt fast enough to keep up with these changes? Engelbart set out to attempt to solve this problem through his research.
"Augmenting Human Intellect" describes in detail the strategy Engelbart developed that people would need to follow in order to keep up with these changes. Engelbart used this strategy himself in his research. Before reading this paper, I would suggest starting with this paper here[1] which provides a refined summary of these ideas and a few additional ideas and then go back and read this paper. The more I learn about Engelbart's vision, the more I am amazed about how accurate his predictions of the future were.
For those who are interested in trying out a system with a similar interface to the NLS, I have built an experimental system similar to Doug Engelbart's NLS system here[2]. Scroll down to the getting started section.
[1] http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-132811.html
[2] https://github.com/smarks159/hyperdocument-system-wiki