Doug was a gem and we will be working to bring his ideas into the mainstream for many years to come. Steve Jobs was a big fan of Doug’s and would light up when he saw him but never funded his work as far as I know. Logitech gave him an office for many years as a thank you for the mouse. Like many geniuses, the appreciation for his work emerges long after his time.
Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
21–30 of 45 posts
Re: Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
#22Is there a TL;DR version? Before you downvote, I don't want to invest hours into reading something when 80% of the value can probably be summarized into one paragraph. BTW, I wonder how many of the people who upvoted this have actually read it.
Hours should suffice for hundreds of pages. TFA is much shorter.
If you insist upon having a tl;dr, it has its own: https://www.dougengelbart.org/content/view/138/#5a2
Re: Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
#23So happy to see this pop up on hacker news again. An anecdote (as far as I can remember it correctly), during one of his award lectures (after the 1997 Turing award), he was asked why he thinks that some of his tech was easily adapted (mouse etc.) and some others weren't (hyperlinks). He answered "Maybe the time is not right yet." ;) Shameless self plug: I'm part of a couple of crazy scientists and enthusiasts follow…
Hah, looks interesting - is it livestreamed somewhere? Could be nice to have that as background noise for tomorrow while working
Re: Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
#24My favourite part is still the 'demo' of tying a brick to a pen to prove the power of augmentation via de-augmentation
Something I can never quite explain to people is that when I can navigate the information faster, I can see deeper problems. Every time someone decided that this is good enough and that I “should be able to figure it out, what’s the big deal?” I am stymied. Which would sound like someone whining about how the bigger kids are running too fast, but when I finally get fed up and fix the code, half the time I’m the one w…
I'm very sympathetic to this, but I think you go too far with the conclusion!
If we did figure out drawing or writing without hands, I think that would be a noticeable, but still small improvement.
Much like with coding, the insight/information /s rate is very rarely keyboard limited.
A good programmer switching to Vim may help them a bit, and it can be a strong enough effect that lots of people will want to switch to better tools like Vim
But I doubt there's room enough in there to extract a whole new enlightenment from :)
Re: Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
#25"Hey Siri, do my homework for me."
"I'm sorry, Dave, but I'm afraid you need to purchase the Universal Homework Cheating app from the App Store on your mobile device or move to Finland where there is no homework and better educational outcomes."
If AI/ML can be made general enough and enough computing horsepower is available, then a UHC is possible. Soon afterwards though, self-reprogramming will be possible, rendering most programmers and software engineers redundant. You then have to wonder what jobs cannot be automated until emotion AI and truly general AI arrive, and displace people into perhaps an economically-driven technological singularity / organic transcendence.
Re: Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
#26Is there a TL;DR version? Before you downvote, I don't want to invest hours into reading something when 80% of the value can probably be summarized into one paragraph. BTW, I wonder how many of the people who upvoted this have actually read it.
I have never read quite such a lazy comment on HN. Do your own research, instead of grifting off other people's opinions.
As a minor nit, the way it was said was a bit harsh, but it seemed to be done in the spirit of necessary, tough love.
I'm appalled by intellectual laziness and codependency these days. We have a mostly illiterate, ignorant, distracted, atomized society that doesn't read, doesn't dig into primary or even secondary sources, doesn't have critical thinking skills, is easily-manipulated by advertising, mainstream news, and social media, doesn't communicate in-person that much, and more and more people feel entitled to be spoon-fed answers and information like helpless chicks tweeting for a worm (the definition of codependency). Only by more people reading, learning, researching, thinking, and doing for themselves more often can these trends be reversed.
PSA: Turn off the screens and read a respectable nonfiction book more often, please.
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - English proverb
Re: Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
#27Is there a TL;DR version? Before you downvote, I don't want to invest hours into reading something when 80% of the value can probably be summarized into one paragraph. BTW, I wonder how many of the people who upvoted this have actually read it.
If the part of your brain responsible for reading things got shot off in the war, the smart move would be to find and watch the “Mother of all Demos” video in its entirety. It is how most people are introduced to Englebart’s ideas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos
Theirs was definitely shot-off in The Great War. The only plausible excuses for not reading would be disabilities such as reading (lexical / comprehension) and/or attention. Dyslexia would be a tough one, as well as severe ADHD. I happen to have the latter but still forcibly plow through books.
It is good to have well-constructed readers to summarize and discuss implications of subject matter, but not as primary material, only to ensure mastery of it.
Re: Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have never read quite such a lazy comment on HN. Do your own research, instead of grifting off other people's opinions.
As a minor nit, the way it was said was a bit harsh, but it seemed to be done in the spirit of necessary, tough love. I'm appalled by intellectual laziness and codependency these days. We have a mostly illiterate, ignorant, distracted, atomized society that doesn't read, doesn't dig into primary or even secondary sources, doesn't have critical thinking skills, is easily-manipulated by advertising, mainstream news, an…
well said, and I would add that the acceptance of the "TL;DR" "culture" is cancerous in tacitly encouraging such laziness.
Re: Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
#29So happy to see this pop up on hacker news again. An anecdote (as far as I can remember it correctly), during one of his award lectures (after the 1997 Turing award), he was asked why he thinks that some of his tech was easily adapted (mouse etc.) and some others weren't (hyperlinks). He answered "Maybe the time is not right yet." ;) Shameless self plug: I'm part of a couple of crazy scientists and enthusiasts follow…
Hah, looks interesting - is it livestreamed somewhere? Could be nice to have that as background noise for tomorrow while working
yes the sessions should be zoom links (not sure if there's a youtube stream ... if so I ask them to link on it on the main page, starts Tuesday)
Re: Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)
#30[deleted]