We can’t talk about modern computing without talking about Douglas Engelbart. He is known best for founding the field of human-computer interaction. His Augmentation Research Center lab at the Stanford Research Institute is credited with the creation of the computer mouse, development of hypertext, and precursors to graphical user interfaces.

In 1968, Engelbart gave a computer demonstration at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) which has retroactively been named the “The Mother of All Demos.”

It featured the introduction of a complete computer hardware and software system called the oN-Line System (NLS). The NLS was highly influenced by Ivan Sutherland’s SketchPad. It demonstrated many of the fundamentals of modern personal computing: windows, hypertext, graphics, efficient navigation and command input, video conferencing, the mouse, word processing, dynamic file linking, revision control and a collaborative real time editor. It would influence Apple and Microsoft operating systems in the 1980s and 1990s.

He received the patent as an assignor of SRI. SRI licensed it to Apple.

Engelbart? He received nothing.

What was state of the art when you were born?

When we talk about technology, it seems like we always assume that young people just know things. Sure, young people know what’s trending, but how about some context for a better perspective? Let’s assume you’re 2 decades old.

When you were born about twenty years ago, the fastest processor on a personal computer was 90 megahertz with 5 gigabytes of storage. That’s about a thousand songs. High definition video takes up about 3 gigabytes per hour, so a hard drive from 2000 could hold about one HD movie.

Assuming you got your first taste of computing about a decade ago, the average processor was a 2.3 GHz dual core i5 processor. The i5 has 4 “cores” which basically means that it has 4 independent processors working together, each at a speed of 2.3 Ghz. Today’s fastest available personal computers have an additional 20 cores that are twice as fast.

So when were computers available for the public to purchase? 2 decades before that, around 1977.

These computers used the BASIC programming language that allowed hackers and enthusiasts to create software. There were multiple versions of the BASIC programming language, the version written for the Altair was created by Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Monte Davidoff.

I was born 4 years later in 1981 which coincides with the IBM PC. This was really the first true PC as we think of them today. Data was stored on cassette tape and an optional 5.25” floppy drive that could hold 160 KB of storage.

The speed of this computer was a single core clocking in at 4.77 MHz. There was an operating system with a graphical interface including icons and folders. There was a mouse. The first cordless mouse was shipped in 1984. There was also a wired network port.

I was fortunate enough to have my own PC as a teenager in the mid 90s. This was not common at all. Most of my friends had a family computer. Even that was a sign of luxury. It was 66 MHz with a 40 megabyte hard drive.

I ended up buying an additional 500 MB hard drive a few years later for about $500. I can’t be sure, but I think it took me about 2 years to save $500 between allowance for chores and helping fix computers for family friends.

Geert Lovink, a scholar of internet studies has said that “Software does not result in a creed or a set of dogmas, but in a social order.” The development of technology is progressing at an exponential rate. It’s so fast now that we hardly have time to reflect on what technology is able to do versus how we use it as a society. Technology companies live by the motto “move fast and break things.”

How has your life been affected by technology?

Were you cognizant of those changes as they happened?

How much of the internet do you think you have taken for granted as just a part of life?

Who decides what technology platforms are adopted?

What kind of decision making goes on at those technology companies in regards to our culture?

What kind of role should the government play in regulating the internet?

When do ordinary people get a say on what technology should do for them?

Where do we draw the line between convenience and privacy?

Why are most people so technologically illiterate, especially our leaders?

How did we get to this point?