Feb
7
Engelbart a saint?
Filed Under Uncategorized
I commented on someone’s blog because she said something about Engelbart that interested me: “It is clear that he truly has humanity’s best interests at heart- he isn’t merely trying to impress us, or create technology for the sake of being famous.”
She may be right, but given my cynical and pessimistic view of the world, I’ll try to give a possible counter argument.
I don’t know if I would call Engelbart a saint who looks out for humanity’s best interests. Just because he isn’t widely known doesn’t mean he didn’t want to become famous. In fact, fame would have done a lot of good for Engelbart, and I think he knows that. His ideas are radical, and ingenious, something that would redefine and revolutionize the way a majority of people think. Had he fame, perhaps more people would have followed his message rather than tune in every weeknight to American Idol. Unfortunately, even with the introduction of a plethora of information provided by computers (which Engelbart helped envision), Engelbart’s integrated domain and augmentation of mind has never come to pass in an ideal sense. His vision will never be realized until more people know more about him, and until there is a cultural revolution, the unthinking majority will remain asleep. Sounds depressing, I know, but look on the (cynical) bright side: if everyone could think, then there would be no need for herders because everyone would be (thinking) sheep who would follow their own mind. That may be good or bad depending on your perspective, but I don’t know about you guys, I like power (as does pretty much every other human if he or she gets the chance).