taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (02/12/87)
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"Tools for Thought"
by Howard Rheingold
``The people and ideas behind the NEXT computer revolution''
Simon and Schuster, 330 pages (with index)
This is a really fascinating book. One of those rare computer books that are
actually written like the author expects people to READ the book rather than
just fill up a hole on their shelf. It also manages to convey quite a
bit of technical information in a way that doesn't make it any less readable
and enjoyable for people with less of a technical background.
The major topic of the book is to try to trace the innovators in the field
of computers back from day one, and then to try to find the people that are
currently doing the truly innovative work in the field and extrapolate (with
their help) about the future...
Chapter one starts by talking about the promise of the Computer Revolution,
coining the important concept of "mind-amplifying machines". To quote from
the introduction:
``The human mind is not going to be replaced by a machine, at
least not in the foreseeable future, but there is little doubt
that the worldwide availability of fantasy amplifiers,
intellectual toolkits, and interactive electronic communities
will change the way people think, learn, and communicate.''
This is the crux of "Tools for Thought" - that the future of computers is
directly tied in with how they can enhance not only our ability to talk
to others but in our ability to talk to ourselves. Toolkits for the
mind...
Chapters two through eight are a summary of the history of computers
starting with the Lady Ada, and her friend Charles Babbage, then
talking about Hollerith, Charles Boole, Alan Turing (a fascinating
character), John von Neumann, Norbert Weiner (author of the book
"The Human Use of Human Beings", based on his experiences with cybernetics),
Claude Shannon, and many others.
Doug Englebart is certainly one of the most important people in this
area of computer technology and chapter nine is devoted to a discussion
of and with him. He is one of the first people to see the potential
for computers to be used to enhance human beings, to improve memory and
cognitive skills, and to speed up calculations. Englebart has always
been years ahead of others - it was his ideas that led to, among other
things, computers that TEACH people, display terminals, mice as pointing
devices and an amazing array of other things that we take for granted
today. He still works with computers and is still wistfully seeking
the realization of his original dream...to be able to "fly through
information space".
Chapter ten talks about Bob Taylor and the group that started and
continues to run the ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency). The
ARPAnet is a fascinating experiment in free distribution of information,
and the person that had the vision to create such a medium, Bob Taylor,
is as much a fascinating person in his own right. As he and J.C.R.
Licklider wisely pointed out: ``By far the most numerous, most sophisticated,
and most important models are those that reside in men's minds.'' It
was for this reason that Taylor and his crew at Xerox PARC created
the idea of networks talking to each other, an invention that without
which you wouldn't be reading this review at all.
Chapter eleven introduces another colorful, brilliant researcher in
the field - Alan Kay. From being 'chief scientist' at Atari, Dr. Kay
is now a 'research fellow' with Apple computers, working on the
all-important fantasy amplifier, a `dynamic medium for creative thought'.
Next we're introduced to Brenda Laurel of Atari, a member of the
Systems Research Group. It is her dream to have a computer interaction
room, where all the aspects of the room, including what is on the walls,
is under computer control. Where people can say "make it a sunny day" and
it is. But why limit it to visual only? It is Brenda's contention that we
can have computers be full multi-sensoral fantasy creation and amplification
devices...if you want to be the Voyager probe and fly between the planets
then you can, with the information being supplied by NASA on-the-fly to
ensure you have accurate representations.
Avron Barr is the next 'infonaut' that we're introduced to - Avron is a
knowledge engineer. At TeKnowledge, Barr and his associates are convinced
that expert systems are not only feasable, but are an important next step
in the evolution of computers. Imagine a system where it learns how you
think, how you solve problems, and how you react to difficulties and
*changes its behaviour to better fit into your cognitive niche*. That
is what Avron is committed to bringing about.
The book wraps up with another person who is certainly one of the
most colorful and interesting members of the field - Ted Nelson.
It is Nelsons' idea that hypertext is the next great wave - where
text has multi-level links and you could, for example, move your
cursor to the quote above, press a special key, and it would
replace this screen with a display of that page of the book itself,
with the quoted passage highlighted. Ad infinitum. In both
directions. Xanadu, an apt name for a system that Ted and a few
devout followers have been questing for for many years now, is the
method by which this will be achieved.
Without doubt, "Tools for Thought" is at the same time one of the most
thought provoking books in the field and one of the best written. I
strongly recommend it.
-- Dave Taylor