By “augmenting human intellect” we mean increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, to gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems.
Man’s population and gross product are increasing at a considerable rate, but the complexity of his problems grows still faster, and the urgency with which solutions must be found becomes steadily greater in response to the increased rate of activity and the increasingly global nature of that activity. Augmenting man’s intellect, in the sense defined above, would warrant full pursuit by an enlightened society if there could be shown a reasonable approach and some plausible benefits.
Quote from Doglas Engelbart provided in this talk by @[email protected] (Bret Victor).
Another nice quote from Alan Kay (immediately after the above):
Think about what literacy actually is. Literacy begins with ideas, and literature evolved as a way of communicating those ideas. Computer literacy, by extension, cannot possibly be about learning how to put a disk in a machine, and it cannot possibly be about learning a spreadsheet.
Computers are really for helping us understand systems that are too complicated to think about in classical ways, such as political systems or the AIDS epidemic. They are really for letting children build models of complicated ideas and understand these powerful ideas in a direct way at a much earlier age than they would have without the aid of the computer.
Which, in the video, is followed by a nice comparison between SmallTalk and a deceptively similar UI in the Macintosh.
This is a very uplifting and interesting talk. Thanks for posting!
No worries. Many of Bret Victor’s talks are great!
