First Principles · From an article
Origins · the entities behind the piece
In 1960, Engelbart ran the numbers. Moore's Law is the half we kept.
Every person, place, institution and idea this article touches — the reading list it generates.
7 written · 28 catalogued
People
8 Bill English American engineer (1929–2020) who co-invented the mouse with Engelbart and built the first prototype in 1964. Douglas Engelbart American engineer (1925–2013) and pioneer of human–computer interaction. Gordon Moore American engineer (1929–2023), co-founder of Intel. Glenn Murphystub American engineering professor and author of “Similitude in Engineering” (The Ronald Press, 1950), the dimensional-analysis text that Engelbart's 1960 paper explicitly drew on — the source behind the source. J. R. Nallstub Fairchild Semiconductor engineer who chaired Session VII at the 1960 ISSCC — the session in which Engelbart delivered the similitude paper. John Markoffstub American journalist (b. 1949) who chronicled the personal computer's counterculture roots. Steven Levystub American technology journalist (b. 1951), author of Hackers. Wilbur & Orville Wrightstub American inventors who achieved powered flight in 1903 by reframing the problem as control rather than propulsion.
Institutions
6 Augmentation Research Center (ARC)stub Engelbart's laboratory at SRI, the team that built NLS and staged the 1968 demonstration. Fairchild Semiconductorstub A pioneering semiconductor company founded in 1957, the seedbed of Silicon Valley. Intelstub Founded 1968; maker of the first microprocessor. ISSCCstub The International Solid-State Circuits Conference, where Engelbart presented the similitude paper in February 1960. SRI (Stanford Research Institute)stub An independent research institute founded in 1946, originally affiliated with Stanford. Xerox PARCstub Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, founded in 1970.
Places
1Concepts
13 Bootstrapping Engelbart's central loop: using tools to get better at improving tools, compounding collective IQ. Microelectronics and the Art of Similitude Engelbart's two-page 1960 ISSCC paper arguing that each new scale breaks the old rules and opens new possibilities. Moore's Law The observation that became the industry's schedule. Similitude The engineering science of scale: what else changes when every dimension of a thing changes. Augmenting Human Intellectstub Engelbart's 1962 conceptual framework: the computer as amplifier of human capability rather than automator of calculation. Computer Mousestub The pointing device Engelbart and English built in 1964. Dimensional Analysis & Pi Termsstub The method behind similitude — reducing a system to dimensionless ratios that hold across scales. Hypertextstub Text with links — Nelson's word, the web's foundation. Integrated Circuitstub Many transistors on a single piece of silicon. NLS (oN-Line System)stub The integrated system Engelbart's team built and demonstrated in 1968 — combining the mouse, on-screen windows, hypertext links, and real-time collaborative editing into one working environment decades ahead of its time. The Mother of All Demosstub The December 1968 San Francisco presentation of NLS — named years afterward by Steven Levy. Transistorstub The 1947 invention that replaced the tube and shrank the world. Vacuum Tubestub The first electronic switch and amplifier.