And let's not forget to open our own minds to the possibility of innovation rather than just fixing the latest problem. Perhaps this idea is best summed up by Alan Kay in a 1977 article titled "Personal Dynamic Media" regarding the Dynabook, the first notebook-computer design, which also influenced the Alto. "What would happen in a world in which everyone had a Dynabook?" Kay writes. "If such a machine were designed in a way that any owner could mold and channel its power to his own needs, then a new kind of medium would have been created: a metamedium, whose content would be a wide range of already-existing and not-yet-invented media." He goes on to talk about a wide range of ideas, from architects perusing their own designs, to doctors having instant access to a drug-interaction system and patient records, to composers listening to their works in progress, to simple home-office tasks. These are all things we do today--it seems obvious. But it took us 30 years of engineering to get here.
Thanks to the National Academy of Engineering and all the winners for reminding us of that.
Mike Lee is NETWORK COMPUTING's editor. Write to him at [email protected].
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