Inventors discuss their sources of inspiration
Featuring a panel discussion of five inventors whose dreams transformed computing, medicine and consumer products -- Douglas Englebart, Brian Hubert, Raymond Kurzweil, Robert Langer, and Steve Wozniak -- the event celebrates the publication of Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse (MIT Press). 'Invention in technology is a form of magic,' said Kurzweil, 'in seeing the leap from a dry formula to an impact on people's lives.' Engelbart recommended that next generation inventors nurture collectively their 'dreams about how much people can improve. The mouse was just a windshield wiper. There are urgent big problems that have to be dealt with collectively.'”
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Technology and the Quality of Being Human
Technology and the Quality of Being Human
“San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation and Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society (CSTS) have jointly implemented an awards program recognizing technology that benefits humanity." ... A case in point, the Millennium Project of the United Nations University. "The protagonist at the Board meeting was Doug Engelbart, Turing Award winner and recipient of the National Medal of Technology... a passionate advocate for what he describes as the “need for technological and human systems to increase their rate of co-evolution” if we are to effectively address complex and urgent problems like those identified in the Millennium Project.”
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Co-Evolving Social Systems with Escalating Technological Change
Co-Evolving Social Systems with Escalating Technological Change
“How can individuals and organizations maintain a sense of control amidst the ever-accelerating pace of the information technology revolution?” According to panelist Doug Engelbart, "With escalating change in several systems, many forces will start to collide, politically, militarily, economically, and socially. [...] We need a strategy to deal with the changing scale brought on by the information technology revolution. [...] If we can make headway in dealing with complexity, which itself is a complex task, then we can use this progress to improve our ability to make progress. Thus we can bootstrap our way to an improved capability for dealing with complex, urgent problems. [...] and co-evolve with our technological systems to augment our collective IQ."
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TOC for this Issue | About STS Nexus
Computer visionary seeks to boost people’s collective ability to confront complex problems coming at a faster pace
Computer visionary seeks to boost people's collective ability to confront complex problems coming at a faster pace
Douglas Engelbart has been “pursuing his vision of far more powerful systems that would help people collaborate more effectively to solve the big problems" -- many of which were complicated and speeded up by the technologies he helped launch. "That's the big, big thing that's so important: How do we increase the capability of people to deal collectively with urgent complex problems? That's been my pursuit all these years," he says.
The SCU Center for Science, Technology, and Society: Where Technology and Tradition Meet
The SCU Center for Science, Technology, and Society: Where Technology and Tradition Meet
“The new Center at SCU capitalizes on its Silicon Valley resources to provide a promising educational resource. [...] CSTS Advisory Board Member and recent National Medal of Technology recipient, Doug Engelbart, calls for a new technological and social architecture if we are to tap our "collective I.Q." and imaginations. He posits that realizing this potential will require changes in both our "tool" and "human" systems. [...] Engelbart argues that we are in the early stages of an "unfinished revolution," the full benefits of which can only be realized through the imaginative "co-evolution" of technical and human systems.
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