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THE_BIG_GAME

                                             June 21, 2021

In the historical summary of the computer business
commonly embedded in our collective unconscious,
the role of Douglas Englebart is often reduced to
a the very minor tagline "inventor of the mouse".

Douglas Englebart and his co-horts
were after some pretty big game.

                                              ENGLEBART


Douglas Englebart, "Augmenting Human Intellect:
A Conceptual Framework" (1962):


   "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. Increased capability in
   this respect is taken to mean a mixture of the
   following: more-rapid comprehension, better
   comprehension, the possibility of gaining a
   useful degree of comprehension in a situation
   that previously was too complex, speedier
   solutions, better solutions, and the possibility
   of finding solutions to problems that before
   seemed insoluble. And by 'complex situations' we
   include the professional problems of diplomats,
   executives, social scientists, life scientists,
   physical scientists, attorneys, designers--
   whether the problem situation exists for twenty
   minutes or twenty years."


   "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 ... "


   "The process of developing this conceptual
   framework [for research into human
   intellectual augmentation] brought out a
   number of significant realizations: that the
   intellectual effectiveness exercised today by
   a given human has little likelihood of being
   intelligence limited-- that there are dozens
   of disciplines in engineering, mathematics,
   and the social, life, and physical sciences
   that can contribute improvements to the
   system of intellect-augmentation means; that
   any one such improvement can be expected to
   trigger a chain of coordinating improvements;
   that until every one of these disciplines
   comes to a standstill and we have exhausted
   all the improvement possibilities we could
   glean from it, we can expect to continue to
   develop improvements in this human-intellect
   system; that there is no particular reason
   not to expect gains in personal intellectual
   effectiveness from a concerted system-
   oriented approach that compare to those made
   in personal geographic mobility since
   horseback and sailboat days."



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