Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework
dougengelbart.org
dougengelbart.org
Many years later, I noted in a hypertext conference presentation of my own that I thought the future would be cooler. But here we are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG3PWet8fDk&t=575
That video is the best one I know of if you want to hear him talk about his ideas.
What he wanted was to use computers to augment the intelligence of people, not to replace it, what he called “collective IQ” because he considered that computers were to be tools at the service of people collaborating with each other.
Getting to the point about computers being tools, Ursala has a wonderful breakdown of holistic vs control technologies, identifying which technologies are at the individual's disposal as an augmentative device, and which technologies merely contain & limit systems. Alas, even with so mucn "creative" software today, there s still a strong pretense of software that intermediates, that thinks it knows, and tries to hide & cloak the real intellectual truths inside of. Interface is often an Engelbartian dishonesty.
Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework is a 1962 paper by Douglas Engelbart that outlines a framework for increasing human intellectual capabilities through the use of technology. The paper outlines a strategy for developing a system that would provide humans with the minute-by-minute services of a digital computer equipped with computer-driven cathode-ray-tube display, and developing new methods of thinking and working that allow the human to capitalize upon the computer's help. The paper also discusses the importance of structuring concepts and symbols to enable humans to comprehend and find solutions to complex problems, as well as the importance of automating the H-LAM/T system to increase the effectiveness of executive processes. The paper also outlines the use of time-sharing, light pens, and pushbuttons to communicate with the computer, as well as the use of associative-trail manipulation to improve the human's process structuring and executing capabilities. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of positive feedback in the research development process, and the potential for providing users with a basic general-purpose augmentation system from which they can construct special features to match their job and ways of working. The overall message of the paper is that technology can be used to augment human intellectual capabilities, and that this can be done through the development of sophisticated techniques for process and symbol structuring.
Instead we got a lot of tech bro billionaires building social networks that have poisoned discourse and destroyed democracies around the world.
That said, Doug and his foundation always gave me hope. I wish some of the VCs who blew all that money on wework and web3 would have looked in this direction.
Social networks have provided people with a vast social graph that allows them to assess a vast number of people's credibility, interests, etc, which enables a whole slew of business and social relationships to exist that otherwise could not, everything from personalized cup-cake vendors, to children's school supplies vendors, to clubs for people interested in birdwatching.
All of these kinds of social connections are far easier to create when there's a ready social graph to tap into. But as usual, people take for granted what the prevailing technology provides, and focus only on the harm.
I personally know numerous people whose business would not be viable without Facebook.
Everything social networks, and tech in general, have achieved so far, is driving people further away from each other.
Then life happens and things get derailed and sullied. The tech becomes a lever for (geo)political or economic interests and zero or even negative sum games. It evolves in bizzare and unforeseable ways that are quite disconnected from the initial foundational thinking.
Digital tech sixty years since Engelbart has failed in fundamental ways to deliver the goods. We can ignore the obvious dominance of surveillance capitalism that is decidedly the opposite of human augmentation (except for the few lining their pockets).
Even in pure bean counting economic terms there is no productivity benefit from all that tech [0]
[0] https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/how-to-solve-the-puzzle...
Greed doesnt feel intractable. The degree to which it is given free reign is a cultural parameter. Technology can certainly help reward the right behaviors and the that might be the best "augmentation" it could provide