doug engelbart
As an undergraduate, one of my primary roles as an A/V person was to create a library of all of the videos that Andy had. Usually, it required watching them to figure out what they were. Most of them were utterly painful, but there was one that always blew my mind. It was on such an old tape (pre-NTSC VHS) format, although i don’t remember which one now. I remember thinking it was so fragile.
Plugged in and out comes this black and white demo of Doug Engelbart demoing the mouse for the first time, an interactive hyperlink, shared-screen collaboration and a variety of other things. 1968. It was a perfect demo – no flaws, not hiccups, clean as day and done on the first take, live. (If you’ve ever done a demo, you know that it’s impossible to live up to that standard.)
Engelbart is a pioneer in computer science, a complete visionary. He invented so much of what we take for granted today. And all of his inventions focused on people’s needs and designing for a civil society. His work is stunning.
And i had the amazing opportunity to hear him speak tonite. I sat there smiling with my eyes closed, listening to his voice which is unchanged in the 45 years since that demo was created. Flashbacks to crazy days in the overly ACed A/V room labeling and wandering through the library with utter awe and fascination.
through random chance, i had the opportunity to talk with doug ten years ago in a small group. he was notably gentle, unimposing, and seemed to be driven by genuine curiosity and exploration more than anything else. a beautiful man.