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      Beyond the Mouse: Engelbart and Social Change 

      By Eugene Eric Kim 
      Eugene, DDJ's technical editor, can be reached at eekim@ddj.com. 

       December 11, 1998

      When Jaron Lanier and Douglas Engelbart first met, Engelbart related
      a conversation he once had with Marvin Minsky. Minsky was
      explaining to Engelbart all of the wonderful things he was going to do
      to computers, such as making them intelligent and giving them
      emotions. Engelbart responded, "You're going to do that for
      computers? When are you going to do that for humans?" 

      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. lock ("the first