Augmenting human intellectD. C. Engelbart
Augmenting human intellect
by D. C. Engelbart · first published 1965
34mentions
10recommended by
21HN commenters
2010–2026first – last mentioned
48% recommend52% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Engelbart's 1962 framework paper proposes using computers to augment human problem-solving. It is a foundational vision of interactive computing, and it suits readers interested in computing history and tool design.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…Cybernetics, Ashby (1956) - https://ashby.info/Ashby-Introduction-to-Cybernetics.pdf * Man-Computer Symbiosis, J. C. R. Licklider, (1960) - https://groups.csail.mit.edu/medg/people/psz/Licklider.html * Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework, by Douglas Engelbart (1962) - https://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html * Man and the Computer, John G. Kemeny - https://archive.org/details/mancomputerbyjoh0000john…
on “Man and the Computer by John G. Kemeny (1972 book by the co-creator of BASIC)” ↗* Augmenting Human Intellect (Engelbart, 1962) [0] * Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures (aka REST from ch. 5) (Fielding, 2000) [1] [0]: http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html…
on “Ask HN: What are some interesting papers in CS for a beginner?” ↗The IA terminology brings to mind the classic "Augmenting Human Intellect"[1] essay by Doug Engelbart (famous for giving "The Mother of all Demos"[2]) [1] https://www.dougengelbart.org/content/view/138 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos
on “Artificial Intelligence – The Revolution Hasn’t Happened Yet (2018)” ↗Both inspiring: Doug Engelbart's 1962 "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework" http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/engelbart/62_paper_top.ht... Herbert Simon's "The Sciences of the Artificial" http://www.amazon.com/Sciences-Artificial-Herbert-Simon/dp/0...
on “Ask HN: Reccomend essays to a young, inquiring mind” ↗…genius can only be so prescient). Its interest is now purely historical & dead; it can no longer be any call for action or rethinking. What's a vision of the future? Sad to say, Douglas Engelbart's 1962 "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework" http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html still is far beyond anything we have right now.
on “As We May Think by Vannevar Bush” ↗Augmenting Human Intellect. A Conceptual Framework by Doug Engelbart. http://www.1962paper.org/ In 1962 Doug Engelbart published what may be the most important paper in computer history and in human augmentation. This is where…
on “Doug Engelbart's advice to a young software developer [video]” ↗Not a book, but I encourage people to read Douglas Engelbart's paper on Augmenting Human Intellect: http://dougengelbart.org/content/view/138 Alan kay is a big of Engelbart and I'm surprised it wasn't listed in his answer. Also, for anyone that's interested, a windows clone of NLS is available here…
on “Alan Kay's answer to ‘what are some forgotten books programmers should read?’” ↗…All Demos submission[1], talking about Engelbart being not super well backed or supported. Maybe this goes too far to be palatable- even for a statement as push-us-forward as Long Term Research- but "Augmenting Human Intellect"[2] was certainly a vision for empowering us, for pushing us forward. Pre-AI singularity, Engelbart was envisioning instead that we make people (not machines) better and better. Yet he overall had very…
on “The Need for Long-Term Research” ↗…eh? Now that the machines can think and talk, the only real problem left (to a first approximation) is selection of the options they generate, as describe sixty years ago by Engelbart in his classic, "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework" https://dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html I'm going to repeat that because it's as important as it is counter-intuitive: the machines will think better than we can, so…
on “Flow-Based Programming, a way for AI and humans to develop together” ↗…humans) will only go up. Ergo, the only intellectual problem left is how to use them. I've been banging on about this for a couple of weeks now, so apologies to those who've seen it before, please read "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework" SRI Summary Report AFOSR-3223 by Douglas C. Engelbart, October 1962 https://dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html And then at least skim "An Introduction to Cybernetics" by…
on “If AI scaling is to be shut down, let it be for a coherent reason” ↗…vision; it creates a "what if" mode in which to dream. One's principles are a habitat that shapes all of their experiences. I personally have been hugely inspired by Douglas Engelbart's conception of Augmenting Human Intellect: building not just better processes but seeing Computing as a broader tool for though, believing in a co-reinforcing constructionist human-computer symbiosis. Convceiving of computing as one of the highest…
on “How do you dream big” ↗…https://dercuano.github.io/topics/self-sustaining-systems.ht... https://dercuano.github.io/topics/small-is-beautiful.html https://dercuano.github.io/topics/hypertext.html You are likely to be particularly interested in my "Commentaries on reading Engelbart’s “Augmenting Human Intellect”", https://dercuano.github.io/notes/augmenting.html.
on “STEPS Toward the Reinvention of Programming (2012) [pdf]” ↗…Symbiosis, J. C. R. Licklider, (1960) - https://groups.csail.mit.edu/medg/people/psz/Licklider.html As We May Think, Vannevar Bush (1945) - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-m... Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework, by Douglas Engelbart (1962) - https://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html Characteristica universalis, Leibniz (c. 1679) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis…
on “Man-Computer Symbiosis (1960)” ↗Funny timing — the Future of Coding podcast (disclosure: hosted by myself, sponsored by Replit) just did an episode about Engelbart's Augmenting Human Intellect, perhaps offering a bit of the "more in-depth examination" Amjad was interested in. https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/056 That paper (from '62) forms quite the contrast with MoAD (from '68). While…
on “50th Anniversary of the Mother of All Demos (2018)” ↗…exponential world where everything is constantly changing, so how to we as a society adapt fast enough to keep up with these changes? Engelbart set out to attempt to solve this problem through his research. "Augmenting Human Intellect" describes in detail the strategy Engelbart developed that people would need to follow in order to keep up with these changes. Engelbart used this strategy himself in his research. Before reading this…
on “Augmenting Human Intellect (1962)” ↗