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WIDE_AUGMENTATION

                                             July 13, 2021


   There is, I think, something missing from
   Englebarts thinking (or at least his                  AUGMENTATION
   writings about his thinking) circa 1962:
   he's proposing a program focused on
   augmenting *individual* intelligence:

       "to find the factors that limit the effectiveness
       of the individual's basic information-handling
       capabilities in meeting the various needs of society
       for problem solving in its most general sense."

   If the tools Englebart proposes enhance
   our *collective* intelligence, that
   would be solely through the channel of
   augmenting individual capabilities.

                                                  Englebart is concerned with
   Eventually, Englebart's team created a         the "effect of an individual
   system useful for the team itself to           on the world".
   collaborate with each other, sharing
   resources over a network.                          The ways that the world
                                                      itself might change as
   At the outset, there's no discussion of            these tools are developed
   anything like new forms of collective              isn't really addressed.
   thinking emerging out of a widely shared
   network.                                             Arguably, Englebart
                                                        "predicted the car,
                                                        but not the traffic
                                                        jam."

                                                                  JAM

   But Englebart does allude to the
   fact that this work is bound to
   be somewhat open-ended:

       "the explicit nature of future improved systems
       would be highly affected by (expected) changes
       in our technology or in our understanding of the
       human being."

           That last bit is an interesting
           admission: When human beings are your             This is the
           building blocks, you run up against the           real "social
           problem of understanding human nature.            engineering".

           Englebart talks about improving
           the individuals ability to deal
           with "complex situations", but       He does however place
           doesn't address the fact that        emphasis on the ways a
           the real complex situations          particular individual
           result from all those other          "augmentation" (here, an
           individuals out there.               information processing
                                                gadget) can have secondary
                                                effects that might not be
                                                obvious from the immediate
                                                need they address.





    Englebart, 1962:

    "The explicit new system we
    contemplate will involve as
    artifacts computers, and
    computer-controlled                 He hasn't yet
    information-storage,                gotten to
    information-handling, and           computers as
    information-display devices."       communication
                                        devices.







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