Prompt Cast
The Birth of Personal Computing: How a 90-Minute Demonstration in 1968 Shaped the Future of Computers
TLDR The birth of personal computing and many modern computer features can be traced back to a 90-minute demonstration in 1968 by Douglas Engelbart and his team. Their work on the NLS system, including graphical user interfaces and collaborative document editing, laid the foundation for the way we interact with computers today.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
The birth of personal computing and the release of many modern computer features can be traced back to a single 90-minute demonstration in 1968.
02:01
The personal computer and its major innovations were actually developed before Apple or Microsoft existed, primarily by Douglas Engelbart and his team of researchers.
03:48
Doug Engelbart had a vision of interactive collaborative computing, where computers could be operated through various input devices and people could share knowledge, which was considered far-fetched at the time due to the expense and limited functionality of computers in the 1950s.
05:33
Doug Engelbart and his team at the Augmentation Research Center developed the online system, or NLS, over five years, which included graphical user interfaces and collaborative document editing, and in December 1968, they were ready to demonstrate their work.
07:19
Doug Engelbart's 90-minute keynote presentation at the annual Computer Science Conference showcased the NLS system, featuring the first graphical user interface, working hyperlinks, a floating window, the world's first word processor, and real-time collaborative document editing.
09:02
Doug Engelbart's demonstration of the NLS system and the invention of the mouse had a profound impact on the world of computer science, even though it took several years for his ideas to be adopted by other companies like Xerox and eventually Apple.
10:44
Doug Engelbart's ideas of what a computer could be have become the basis for how almost every person on earth interacts with a computer today, and his demonstration of the NLS system and invention of the mouse earned him the title "The Mother of All Demos" and the National Medal of Technology.
