Computer lib

What Hacker News says

1. AfterHIAOct 2025
   A few more that young developers need to read:

   Computer Lib by Ted Nelson. This used to be the, "Bible" before Nelson fell into relative obscurity. Ted Nelson was the first to coin the term, "Hypertext" in the 1960s after reading a famous article by Vannevar Bush

   https://worrydream.com/refs/Nelson_T_1974_-_Computer_Lib,_Dr...

   Mindstorms by Seymour Papert. Introduction to, "interfaces as pedagogy." This lays a foundation for, "what computer interfaces look like when you can use human intuition to work through them."

   https://worrydream.com/refs/Papert_1980_-_Mindstorms,_1st_ed...

   Jef Raskin was the original head of the Macintosh team. This treatise on humane design is invaluable and has been largely ignored. Any person that takes these ideas and makes them work will be a proverbial father of, "the next generation of computing."

   https://archive.org/details/humaneinterfacen00rask

   Douglas Engelbart who is often regard as, "the inventor of the mouse" founded his working philosophy by describing an operation paradigm for continued exponential improvement in groups. In some sense it's a masterwork in, "computer ethics."

   https://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/papers/scanned/Doug_Engel...

   Early article describing Hyperlinking and aspects of the Internet some of which haven't been or have been under-realized. Imagine what, "social histories for extending research" would look like if taken seriously.

   https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-m...

   Computers As Theatre by Brenda Laurel; "think of the computer not as a tool but a medium." Brenda is an actress that applied Aristotle's Poetics to computer design. An absolute foundational classic.

   https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~social/reading/Laurel-ComputersAsThe...

   Worthy mention: Alan Kay's Quora. This is a literal goldmine of insights into the history of programming languages and computing paradigms. He'll answer your question if it's meaningful.

   https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Kay-11

   Remember: computer paradigms have changed every few decades. We started with pontifications by philosophers about the foundations of mathematics to mechanical machines to vacuum tube machines to (skipping some things) huge mainframes to mini-computers to linked personal computers (Engelbart) to the Xerox Alto. We now live in a world of castrated, linked post-Altos and a failed realization of portable computers in the form of b̶r̶a̶i̶n̶w̶a̶s̶h̶i̶n̶g̶-̶o̶u̶t̶r̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶c̶h̶i̶n̶e̶s̶ smartphones. Ask yourself-- what comes next? How can we significantly improve computers for human beings?

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2. AfterHIASep 2025
   Names: Alan Kay, Ted Nelson, Douglas Engelbart, Dan Ingalls, Jef Raskin, Larry Tesler, Brenda Laurel, Bret Victor

   Technologies: Erlang, Smalltalk(s), Lisp, Clojure, Query By Example, Programming By Demonstration, Logo

   Hardware: Canon Cat, Xerox Alto/Star, Sketchpad, PDP-11, PERQ Workstation, SGI workstations, OLPC

   Books: Computers As Theatre Second Edition, Computer Lib, "As We May Think" by Bush, Engelbart's 62' paper, Mindstorms by Seymour Papert.

   Links:

   https://worrydream.com/refs/Papert_1980_-_Mindstorms,_1st_ed...

   https://archive.org/details/humaneinterfacen00rask

   https://www.dougengelbart.org/mousesite/EngelbartPapers/Cont...

   https://courses.cs.umbc.edu/471/papers/turing.pdf (for the AGI fuckheads)

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3. kwatsonafterJul 2022
   Here's some advice: if you're really interested in learning, "Computer Science" than I'd actually steer away from online communities and the like-- you're going to run into a lot of people that you might assume know things that give you ideas that you'll eventually have to self-correct. There are relatively few academically competent, "computer people" in the world after the dissolution of science and technology programs in the post-war economic period. Watch Alan Kay talks. Read Computer Lib by Ted Nelson.

   There's a theory that through the 80's and 90's that, "many of the elves left Middle Earth" (ie. the first competent generation of PC-literate computer people have left the industry) Bill Atkinson went and became a photographer after developing HyperCard. There are other examples. Learn, "Humanism" first. Computer literacy will follow if it is your destiny.

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4. tudorwOct 2019
   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/722414.Computer_Lib_Drea... by Ted Nelson :)
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5. shalabhcApr 2019
   Ted Nelson recently did a series of videos on the important ideas in Xanadu. Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMKy52Intac

   Also you can buy his classic 'Computer Lib' book here: https://computerlibbook.com/

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6. drallisonJan 2018
   A worthy collection. Theodor "Ted" Nelson's ideas have played a significant role in shaping the course of computing and thought. His self-published books (Computer Lib and Literary Machines) are still goldmines of information and understanding. His papers, some of which appear in this collection, show a deep understanding of computation that, even today, seems revolutionary.

   The World Wide Web is an imperfect implementation of his conceptual model of a world in which information is completely intertwingled. His concept of transcopyright provide a workable solution to the question of who owns what in a digital world. And he is the man who invented the hyperlink.

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