A common saying made its way into my mind while reading Licklider, Bush and Engelbart’s writings of a half century ago, which I learned later was used by Issac Newton over three centuries ago.
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
These articles put into perspective how phenomenal the tools we have at our disposal today, so often taken for granted, truly are. These writings show us how minds of yesteryear were the driving force behind the information age revolution, whether intentionally or not.
For me these articles serve to provide a background of the thought and work that has gone into computerization of the education and research fields, entertainment, communication technology and tools we now use in everyday life.
In today's context, these articles ask more questions then they answer. And what is interesting, almost funny, is what I will call the paper gap.
Each article this week in one way or another mentions paper, its benefits, limits and roll in human thinking and computer processing.
"An information-storage mechanism in the writing machine permits you to sweep the reading stylus over the characters much faster than the writer can type; the writer will catch up with you when you stop to think about what word or string of words should be duplicated next... This writing machine would permit you to use a new process of compositing text. For instance, trial drafts could rapidly be composed from re-arranged exerpts of old drafts, together with new words or passages which you stop to type in." Engelbart Augmenting Human Intellect, 1962.
"The printer draws a set of closely spaced lines across the paper one after another. As it moves, its potential is varied in accordance with a varying current received over wires from a distant station... Thus, when the whole picture has been covered, a replica appears at the receiving end" Bush, As We May Think, 1945.
"The first thing to face is that we shall not store all the technical and scientific papers in computer memory. We may store the parts that can be summarized most succinctly - the quantitative parts and the reference citations - but not the whole. Books are among the most beautifully engineered, and human-engineered, components in existence and they will continue to be functionally important within the context of man-computer symbiosis." Licklider, Man-Computer Symbiosis, 1960.
What these authors may find hard to believe, if they were to visit one of our Thursday night discussions, is that we are moving closer and closer to a paper free environment. Incoming students are encouraged to by a laptop computer for research, note taking and composition writing. The entirety of our semesters reading material can be found beyond the glass of a computer monitor on the internet. And there exists no physical text book has been assigned or will be used by our 501 class.
These writers, these giants, were brainstorming solutions for problems of there world, a world that was built on ink and paper. A world that has now taken a back seat to the world of the keyboard and mouse.
Ironically however, in order to best absorb and retain the assigned reading, my study routine involves printing, stapling and marking with a pen, paper.
As I mentioned earlier, these articles create more questions than answers, one which came to me this morning while running near my house. Among all the discussion of which goals and ends computers and machines can help us achieve and meet, there remains processes and methodologies that will remain purely human.
I ran by an old man, sitting by a pond playing a violin. He had no goal. He had no assigned task. The only purpose, the only reason he was there, was to be there, to enjoy the sun, water, and fickle last days of summer. Computers may help us calculate, visualize, communicate, and reach conclusions, but there is more to life than achieving concrete results.
There are human experiences where the journey is the destination, the task is the reward, and this computers may never understand, and perhaps never should.
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5 comments:
"These writers, these giants, were brainstorming solutions for problems of there world, a world that was built on ink and paper. A world that has now taken a back seat to the world of the keyboard and mouse." That is so true. Now, let's see how technology has changed since that time period. What do you think will happen next?
You really describe the purely human experience well with your example of the old man by the pond. I thought too that Licklider realizes that there never can be true symbiosis between man and machine for this very reason. I attributed it to the machine's lack of "Soul" or "Ego." I think you described it in a much more human way.
tjb
I agree with you about our study methods. Even though everything is online, we still print pages & write notes with a pen. I imagine most do. That physical, repetitive motion is what makes things stick.
If I weren't paying $20 grand for this major...I might elect to try studying from the screen. Though, I think I'd wind up with much lower grades, less knowledge would absorb, a sore set of eyes, office back, forward head & I'm sure a plethora of other issues! I know this...because of my personal training gig, I fix (try to anyway) those that have sat behind monitors for 20-some odd years.
You raised a good point from the Licklider article, that kind of got lost in the articles this week that foreshadowed a push for new technology, and that is technology cannot replace all forms of communication such as a novel or magazine. Certain publishers tried posting books online (basically posting scanned pages) and it was very unsuccessful...newspapers and magazines still sell because they are portable and easy for people.
Great work.
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