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Botworld

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His research group even commissioned – practically invented – modern office furniture, so that you could sit in a comfy chair in your office, with a keyboard which was separate from the screen. Which idea they invented, by the way.

And Engelbart, also in this demo, first showed off the computer mouse.

Doug Engelbart’s mother of all demos was in December 1968, and he invented the PC.

His slogan was “Augmentation not automation.” What he meant was that he wanted the computer to enhance human abilities, not replace them. He was very consciously acting against the massive research into artificial intelligence, which researchers, at the time, believed could replace human intelligence. Engelbart didn’t want humans to be replaced. He wanted computers to be used for mundane tasks like shopping lists, and for creativity.

Coincidentally, the release of the film 2001 was also in 1968, and it was artificial intelligences of the type of HAL in the movie that Engelbart was so against. In a way, he didn’t like that HAL had replaced the human astronauts piloting the spaceship; he didn’t think that was right.

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March 28, 2012

Botworld is a talk on domestic artificial intelligence, from February 2011.