
'The Mother of All Demos' Is 45 Years Old, Doesn't Look a Day Over 25 - steveklabnik
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/the-mother-of-all-demos-is-45-years-old-doesnt-look-a-day-over-25/282152/
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samsquire
One of the things I love about Engelbart's work is that it does not obfuscate
the underlying data. You have the data structure at your finger tips and it's
up to you how you display it or interact with it. If you've got a graph, you
interact with that graph as a graph. If you create a list you can interact
with that as a list.

I am trying to implement something in a similar vein[1].

[1] 98, 4, & 44:
[https://github.com/samsquire/ideas](https://github.com/samsquire/ideas)

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larrybolt
December 9, 1968 Douglas Engelbart did something what I believe was a huge
leap into the future. He didn't just invent the mouse, but the whole
experience and interactivity with a computer which was unheard.

Do that sort of things still happen today? Of course new things get invented
and new ways to interact with media and a computer such as Leap Motion, Myo -
Gesture control armband, Siri, and I'm sure there are tons of other examples
out there. But they seem to be what in Engelbart's presentation was the mouse,
just a part of the larger picture.

~~~
davepeck
While it was more commercial in bent, I've always felt that the original
iPhone introduction[1] was a spiritual successor to Englebart's demo.

[1] Jan 9, 2007 video in this podcast series:
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/apple-
keynotes/id2758346...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/apple-
keynotes/id275834665?mt=2)

~~~
larrybolt
I have to agree with that, I still own an iPod Classic Video and after 2 HD
replacements and a new display (I wasn't really smart nor careful the first
time I attempted to replace the HD) it still is the best Media device I ever
had.

I wonder if Apple will be able to keep pushing devices of such impact out on
the market.

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jgrahamc
See also, "Turing's Curse", from OSCON 2013:
[http://www.oscon.com/oscon2013/public/schedule/detail/29917](http://www.oscon.com/oscon2013/public/schedule/detail/29917)

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chas
Every time Douglas Engelbart is in the news, I reread Bret Victor's reminder
of his goals.
[http://worrydream.com/Engelbart/](http://worrydream.com/Engelbart/)

~~~
adamio
Victor points a software design that can be implemented, two mice, even two
text cursors if designed that way.

What about today's tools isn't alighted with Engelbart's vision? Everything?
That seems a bit too broad

~~~
icegreentea
Well, it's partly because the article is a bit narrow minded. Well, thats what
I feel anyways.

As the article rightfully points out, what matters is intent, not the actual
technical means of implementation, or even how it appears. We do have modern
"screen-sharing" applications with multiple cursors. Just take a look at
Google Docs.

The "problem" of today's tools is that computing technology went through this
phase called the "PC" in which single-user interaction was all there was, and
we went ahead and found efficient methods of single-user interaction, and then
taught entire generations to think based on that metaphor.

~~~
gbhn
This is an excellent point, and I also think that Victor's interpretation of
Engelbart's priorities is really interesting: what if we made computer tools
powerful enough to enable high-bandwidth creative cooperation? Would that open
up new areas of hyper-productive human activity that we've only sporadically
seen up to now, when small groups of like-minded people happen to be put into
a facilitating environment at the same time?

What if that were the norm, because you could find such people -- right for
you -- anywhere in the world, and work with them all your life, not just until
this project funding ran out, or someone graduated, or got a new job, or
whatever.

That's what I think Bret Victor is aiming to find out, and that's why I think
a lot of people are really excited by what he's saying.

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melloclello
Would there be a better quality video available anywhere? I've always thought
that of the one single copy we _do_ have floating around the net, the quality
is garbage. I wanna read the text!

~~~
km3k
Archive.org has it in three parts:

Part 1 -
[https://archive.org/details/XD300-23_68HighlightsAResearchCn...](https://archive.org/details/XD300-23_68HighlightsAResearchCntAugHumanIntellect)

Part 2 -
[https://archive.org/details/XD300-24_68HighlightsAResearchCn...](https://archive.org/details/XD300-24_68HighlightsAResearchCntAugHumanIntellect)

Part 3 -
[https://archive.org/details/XD300-25_68HighlightsAResearchCn...](https://archive.org/details/XD300-25_68HighlightsAResearchCntAugHumanIntellect)

[Edit: formatting]

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mercuryrising
That's an awesome chord keyboard - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-
zdhzMY#t=2039](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY#t=2039) I've always
wondered why more people don't use them. It seems significantly less prone to
errors - instead of fat fingers or incorrect placement, you have to coordinate
the timing between the fingers.

It's pretty amazing how much that video demonstrates. I wonder what the next
version of that video will be. Hopefully it's not computer related.

~~~
jerf
I'd like to try one, but there appears to be basically no such thing as a
bluetooth-enabled one-hand chord keyboard that you are intended to hold in
your hand (as opposed to having on a table), and that's the use case I'm
interested it... an input device for my augmented reality glasses while I'm
walking around. On that note, if they're ever going to make a... well... can't
really make a comeback if you never made an appearance at all... an
_appearance_ , that's probably the scenario that will drive them. Voice may
cover casual usage, but when you really need to go to town you're going to
need something more, and no current input device can meet that need.

~~~
DanBC
Sadly I think neat keyboards are patent encumbered.

There have been things like the Frogpad, or the Twiddler. But they're
expensive and not available anymore.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrogPad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrogPad)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciQVBNHrKKA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciQVBNHrKKA)

I totally agree, I think their time has come and it'd be great if someone
could rescue the tech from all these dead or dying companies and provide a
decent chording keyboard for people on the move.

~~~
eru
Perhaps Morse code would make for a neat device, too.

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sp332
Wow, how trendy is that humanist sans-serif font and lack of capital letters?

Edit: I mean on the announcement at the bottom of the article.

~~~
ianbicking
Did you notice there appears to be an overline for caps? At least that's what
it appeared to signify to me.

------
EdiX
For people interested in seeing the 1968 demo here's the links to the best (to
my knowledge) version available on the internet:

[https://archive.org/details/XD300-23_68HighlightsAResearchCn...](https://archive.org/details/XD300-23_68HighlightsAResearchCntAugHumanIntellect)
(first reel, follow the links for the other two)

If you are interested in how NLS was actually used I also suggest watching the
1969 demo which is less flashy but contains a better explanation of the
interface.

[https://archive.org/details/XD301_69ASISconfPres_Reel1](https://archive.org/details/XD301_69ASISconfPres_Reel1)

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ccozan
Very interesting.

It looks like a interactive document/hypertext backed-up by a schema-less
store ( much like JSON, with hierarchies ). Also I liked the idea to build
"views" from the document(s).

~~~
shurcooL
Views are a very powerful idea, one that is currently under represented.

Today, if you want a different view of a document/data, you typically have to
convert the document/data into a new one (in a different format). Then, as you
change the original, the other remains outdated. Views are awesome because
they remain up to date.

------
noselasd
Or a day over 30. The Blit demo -
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emh22gT5e9k](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emh22gT5e9k)
is a bit over 30 years now

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jostmey
It is shocking to me that it took so long for this technology to be realized
by the public at large. Decades passed before this technology reached people's
homes.

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columbo
Here's a talk in the 80's from Douglas that covers some more details:

[https://archive.org/details/XD302_86ACM_Prese_AugKnowledgeWo...](https://archive.org/details/XD302_86ACM_Prese_AugKnowledgeWorkshopParts1and2)

The Q&A session at the end is very interesting. People asking about gestures
and using a pencil (stylus) instead of a keyboard (note this is back in 86).

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tempestn
Is everyone seeing a bunch of screwed up inline links, or is it just me? Stuff
like this:

<a href="[http://A](http://A) young Stewart Brand &mdash; who would shortly
launch The Whole Earth Catalog &mdash; operated one of the cameras in Menlo
Park. Brand, along with others,">was fairly mind-blowing</a>

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saraid216
Incidentally, the way the kids were typing in the recent Ender's Game movie is
interesting. Does anyone know how deeply they designed that system/interface?
(i.e., was it just random keystrokes or did the chording actually matter?)

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andrelaszlo
The shopping list demo really looks like org-mode to me. :)

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enupten
What else would you expect when much of our Software architecture is from the
70s ? :)

