Another one of his hidden gems is the video where he discussed how they created a virtual tele-conferencing room by moulding CRT screens in the shapes of the head of each participant and projected their face onto it.
It's the perfect example of a practical solution Doug invented decades ago that still hasn't been matched by today's technology.
P.S. I was never able to find the link after I saw it once, so if someone here knows where to find it; please let me know.
>>It's the perfect example of a practical solution Doug invented decades ago that still hasn't been matched by today's technology.
I just told one my co-workers about this and he nearly broke down crying. I asked him who he was and he went into the same example you gave. To say he was ahead of his time is an understatement.
Always sad to lose such a visionary. I'm just learning about some of these incredible people and their amazing contributions.
It would be amazing if someone could do more historical documentary type work on early pioneers in computing. I've learned a ton about Doug Englebart since seeing this post about his passing, and I now regret not having studied his work more closely earlier. It also reminds me that there are many others who probably had / have insightful things to say that could be lost to the sands of time. Ted Nelson seems like an obvious candidate, but who wouldn't want to learn more about people like:
Herbert Simon[1]
Norbert Weiner[2]
Marvin Minsky[3]
Richard Greenblatt[4]
Bill Gosper[5]
John McCarthy[6]
Barbara Liskov[7]
J.C.R. Licklider[8]
Edit: and, of course, we can't neglect Vannevar Bush[9] or Claude Shannon[10] either.
I don't know about order... they've all done some amazing stuff. FWIW, there's some interesting historical / biographical information on some of these folks in two books, both by Steven Levy:
Artificial Life
and
Hackers: Heroes Of The Computer Revolution
That said, the stuff Claude Shannon did basically established the field of Information Theory[1], which underpins huge swathes of our modern digital world. You could do worse than reading up on him.
Comments
Another one of his hidden gems is the video where he discussed how they created a virtual tele-conferencing room by moulding CRT screens in the shapes of the head of each participant and projected their face onto it.
It's the perfect example of a practical solution Doug invented decades ago that still hasn't been matched by today's technology.
P.S. I was never able to find the link after I saw it once, so if someone here knows where to find it; please let me know.
I just told one my co-workers about this and he nearly broke down crying. I asked him who he was and he went into the same example you gave. To say he was ahead of his time is an understatement.
Always sad to lose such a visionary. I'm just learning about some of these incredible people and their amazing contributions.
What is needed is a history project.
See Max Jammer's Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics as a model. He was interviewing the Old Ones before they passed on.
It would be amazing if someone could do more historical documentary type work on early pioneers in computing. I've learned a ton about Doug Englebart since seeing this post about his passing, and I now regret not having studied his work more closely earlier. It also reminds me that there are many others who probably had / have insightful things to say that could be lost to the sands of time. Ted Nelson seems like an obvious candidate, but who wouldn't want to learn more about people like:
Herbert Simon[1]
Norbert Weiner[2]
Marvin Minsky[3]
Richard Greenblatt[4]
Bill Gosper[5]
John McCarthy[6]
Barbara Liskov[7]
J.C.R. Licklider[8]
Edit: and, of course, we can't neglect Vannevar Bush[9] or Claude Shannon[10] either.
etc...
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_A._Simon
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Wiener
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky
[4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Greenblatt_(programmer)
[5]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gosper
[6]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCarthy_%28computer_scien...
[7]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Liskov
[8]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.C.R._Licklider
[9]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush
[10]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon
This is such a great list, I just started frantically jotting some of these names down so I can start digging into their work.
Is there any particular order I should tackle these?
I don't know about order... they've all done some amazing stuff. FWIW, there's some interesting historical / biographical information on some of these folks in two books, both by Steven Levy:
Artificial Life
and
Hackers: Heroes Of The Computer Revolution
That said, the stuff Claude Shannon did basically established the field of Information Theory[1], which underpins huge swathes of our modern digital world. You could do worse than reading up on him.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_theory