

Against the Frictionless Interface An Interview with Lori Emerson - foolrush
http://furtherfield.org/features/interviews/against-frictionless-interface-interview-lori-emerson

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georgeoliver
Emerson references Alan Kay's Dynabook, saying "[u]ncovering documentation
from the 1970s on Smalltalk and on Alan Kay's vision of a Dynabook (as a
device that would have given users the ability to create their own ways to
view and manipulate information) demonstrated to me that there are real
alternatives to the binary of experts on one side and everyday users on the
other."

From Kay's 1972 paper on the Dynabook [1]:

"The active interface should be a language whish uses linguistics concepts not
far removed from the owner of the device. The owner will be able to maintain
and edit his own files and programs when and where he chooses [....] One can
imagine one of the first programs an owner will write is a filter to eliminate
advertising!"

[1] [http://history-computer.com/Library/Kay72.pdf](http://history-
computer.com/Library/Kay72.pdf)

