Douglas Engelbart and “The Mother of All Demos”

Language Spanish Portuguese

Can you imagine seeing a mouse in action for the first time? A video conference? Or even a collaborative editor?

That’s what the attendees experienced at a historic demonstration that forever changed the perspective of the future of computers. It was the so-called “The Mother of All Demos”, which was a conference lasting about 90 minutes!

You might think, why is this considered such a great revolution? Well, the truth is that this conference took place in the 1960s! At that time, navigation and interaction with computers were based on terminal commands, and there wasn’t even a concept of a Personal Computer (PC) that could be marketed.

The vision and motivation

Engelbart was an electrical engineer, but what really drove his professional career was his vision, a vision he acquired at an early age.

“I realized that I didn’t have any more goals than a steady job, getting married and living happily ever after” | Douglas Engelbart, Dec 1950

Douglas Engelbart was inspired by the article “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush, published in 1945. This visionary article highlighted both the author’s concerns about the direction of scientific efforts and how he hoped that information would be democratized thanks to technology and machines that could be accessible to everyone, thus giving scientific progress a better path.

Let’s put ourselves in context! Let’s remember the era of the publication of this article, 1945. Something curious is that it was published twice, once in July, and a second time in September. Do you get it yet? … No? On August 6 and 9, 1945, two atomic bombs were detonated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, belonging to the United States. During that year, the U.S. government invested huge amounts of money in the development of this technology. Now you understand Bush’s concern, right? It also makes sense that this article was published once before the bombings and again after them. Let’s continue!

Engelbart then set out to create a computer system that could enhance humans’ ability to solve complex problems and collaborate remotely.

His vision was that computers should not only be tools for performing calculations but also extensions of the human mind, capable of processing, storing, and communicating information efficiently and creatively.

To achieve this, he relied on the principles of cybernetics, systems theory, and cognitive psychology. His motto was “augment human intelligence.”

The demonstration and its innovations

Engelbart gathered a team of engineers and programmers at his Augmentation Research Center (ARC) located at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the early 1960s.

With this team, he developed a system called NLS (oN-Line System), which integrated several elements that are fundamental today for personal computing and human-computer interaction. Some of them were:

• The mouse, a peripheral with which we control a cursor on a bitmap screen and select commands or texts with a simple click.
• Windows, visual areas that allow us to see multiple documents or applications on the same screen and easily switch between them.
• Hypertext, which links documents or text sections together, creating a non-linear and dynamic information network.
• Videoconferencing, widely used today. It allows us to communicate with other people through real-time audio and video, using a camera and a microphone.
• The collaborative editor, which allows us to work on the same document with other people simultaneously and in sync, seeing changes in real time and using a version control system.
• Knowledge navigation, which allows quick and efficient access to information, using a system of hierarchies, categories, and tags.

These innovations were presented to the public for the first time on December 9, 1968, in a 90-minute conference held in San Francisco before about 2,000 attendees.

A curious fact is that the conference was broadcast live through a computer network called ARPANET, which would later become the precursor to the Internet.

The conference was later named “The Mother of All Demos” due to its impact and significance in the field of computer science.

Legacy and influence

This demonstration was a great source of inspiration and also a benchmark for the development of many other projects and researchers who decided to follow in his footsteps.

For example, Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). They developed the concept of the Graphical User Interface (GUI), which incorporated elements such as icons, menus, windows, and the desktop. It was later adopted by Apple in its Macintosh system and Microsoft in Windows.

Also, the File Retrieval and Editing System (FRESS), worked on by Andries van Dam and a team from Brown University, was an improvement of the Hypertext Editing System (HES) inspired by Engelbart’s NLS.

Engelbart’s demonstration is even considered an example of vision and leadership since he was able to anticipate society’s needs and possibilities, and mobilize a team of talented and committed people to his mission.

Bibliography

• Markoff, J. (2013, July 3). Douglas C. Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse, dies at 88. The New York Times.

In the “History of Software Engineering” course at Jala University, we thoroughly explore the evolution of software engineering, covering its history, pioneering figures, and key moments. A fundamental goal of the course is to avoid a monotonous approach. For this reason, the instructors have innovated the teaching methodology, giving students a central role: the creation and publication of an online blog.

In this blog, students are responsible for developing a specific topic related to the subject. This project culminates with a presentation at the end of the course by each team, followed by an interactive question and answer session. In this way, we foster a dynamic and participative educational experience, allowing students not only to learn about the subject but also to develop essential skills in communication and analysis.

This article was written in Spanish and has been translated into English and Portuguese with ChatGPT.