User:Laurier Rochon/readingnotes/dream machines

Interesting / related / expanding on

media:Ted_Nelson_Computer_Lib.pdf (Found on http://www.newmediareader.com/excerpts.html)

Ted Nelson

Taken from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson)

"Theodor Holm Nelson (born 1937) is an American sociologist, philosopher, and pioneer of information technology. He coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in 1963 and published it in 1965. He also is credited with first use of the words transclusion, virtuality, intertwingularity and teledildonics. The main thrust of his work has been to make computers easily accessible to ordinary people. His motto is: A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within ten seconds. Ted Nelson promotes four maxims: "most people are fools, most authority is malignant, God does not exist, and everything is wrong". "

Nelson on his Xanadu project :

"HTML is precisely what we were trying to PREVENT— ever-breaking links, links going outward only, quotes you can't follow to their origins, no version management, no rights management. – Ted Nelson (Ted Nelson one-liners )"

First paragraph from Computer Lib :

"Any nitwit can understand computers, and many do. Unfortunately, due to ridiculous historical circumstances, computers have been made a mystery to most of the world. And this situation does not seem to be improving. You hear more and more about computers, but to most people it’s just one big blur. The people who know about computers often seem unwilling to explain things or answer your questions. Stereotyped notions develop about computers operating in fixed ways—and so confusion increases. The chasm betwee "