Beyond the Mouse: Engelbart and Social Change

Eugene, DDJ's technical editor, can be reached at

[email protected].

Lanier's anecdote was one of many at

Engelbart's Unfinished

Revolution, a symposium held at Stanford University, where

industry luminaries gathered to examine and honor Engelbart's

achievements and vision. Hosted by the

Institute for the Future and the

Silicon Valley Archives, and moderated by Institute for the Future

director Paul Saffo, the theme of the day was not Engelbart's

inventions (most notably the mouse), but the social change that

Engelbart has advocated, but which have been largely ignored.

Participating in the conference were Engelbart and many of his former

SRI colleagues, including Bill

English, Jeff Rulifson (currently director of the Technology

Development Group at Sun Microsystems), and Charles Irby, who went on

to lead the design of the Star at Xerox PARC and the Nintendo 64 at

SGI. Other participants included hypertext gurus Ted Nelson and Andy

van Dam, Smalltalk-creator Alan Kay, and nanotechnologist K. Eric

Drexler.

Video clips of Engelbart's December 1968 presentation of the NLS

(short for "oN Line System") at an American Federation of Information

Processing Society (AFIPS) conference -- perhaps the most famous

computer demo in history -- were shown throughout the day. NLS

introduced such novelties as networked, interactive computers, the

mouse, and the chording keyboard, most of which moved into the

mainstream in the ensuing 30 years.

As impressive as Engelbart's technological achievements were, they

were only part of his vision. Engelbart has spent his life pursuing

what he calls the "augmentation of human intellect," or "boosting the

collective IQ." Organizations, says Engelbart, can improve their

productivity and the quality of their work by improving the human

process and using the right support technologies. Engelbart recently

founded a non-profit organization,

the Bootstrap Institute, to

help organizations achieve these goals.

This other half of Engelbart's "unfinished revolution" was the center

of discussion throughout the day, and many lamented the glacial pace

of social change. Engelbart, commenting on the slow acceptance of

some of his technical advances, noted, "Prevailing paradigms affect

acceptable research paths. But these paradigms don't move fast

enough."

Ted Nelson delivered the most entertaining talk of the day,

punctuating his points with one-liners that had the audience laughing

throughout. After lamenting the limitations of paper, Nelson went on

to criticize current directions in user-interface and software

design. "Why are video games designed better than office software?"

asked Nelson. "The answer is preposterously simple. Video games are

designed by people who want to play video games. People who design

office software want to do something else on the weekends." Other

speakers included Stewart Brand, who described the

long now foundation's work on

building a 10,000-year clock, and Alan Kay, who emphasized the

"romance" of Engelbart's demonstration and work.

While the goal of the conference was ostensibly to discuss the

"unfinished revolution," all speakers paid homage to Engelbart. While

Engelbart received lavish praise, however, he seemed more overwhelmed

by the almost universal embracing of his ideas by those attending the

conference, and at several points, he became tearful. By the end of

the day, it was clear that if Engelbart's vision is never fully

achieved, it won't be out of lack of effort, but because his vision

continues to be well ahead of its time.

Related web sites

• Engelbart's Unfinished

  Revolution

• MouseSite

• Institute for the Future

• SRI

• Bootstrap Institute

• long now foundation

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