HCI2005: Ted Nelson's Big Picture is a Sour One
A negative view of computers and technology ...
"'In HCI, you see yourselves in a helping role, but you don't have the ability to go back as far as you need to: to 1945.'
Ted Nelson's keynote at HCI2005 was grumpy. Casting himself as the little boy who saw the reality of the "Emperor's New Clothes", he took a very big picture and started with a litany of computer metaphors that failed their users: 'Have you ever seen a vertical desktop? Clipboards that wipe what was there before? That are the same in all aspects but not in any other aspects?'
Computers are what we make them, he told the conference audience, at Napier University in Edinburgh. 'Just as the hamburger is not the true nature of cows, today's computers are a result of misunderstandings of human life and human thought – not the nature of computers but the nature of computer makers' minds, who see the world as hierarchical.'
Nelson is best known as the father of 'hypertext', coining the term in the 60s for a non-hierarchical way of organising materials and ideas. He has continued his work into structures that offer an alternative to the prevalent interfaces of our day. Whether or not he relishes his position as outside the mainstream, he used it to good effect in his talk, punctuating his descriptions of his own progress with lacerating comments on the industry." continued ... (Via Usability News)
"'In HCI, you see yourselves in a helping role, but you don't have the ability to go back as far as you need to: to 1945.'
Ted Nelson's keynote at HCI2005 was grumpy. Casting himself as the little boy who saw the reality of the "Emperor's New Clothes", he took a very big picture and started with a litany of computer metaphors that failed their users: 'Have you ever seen a vertical desktop? Clipboards that wipe what was there before? That are the same in all aspects but not in any other aspects?'
Computers are what we make them, he told the conference audience, at Napier University in Edinburgh. 'Just as the hamburger is not the true nature of cows, today's computers are a result of misunderstandings of human life and human thought – not the nature of computers but the nature of computer makers' minds, who see the world as hierarchical.'
Nelson is best known as the father of 'hypertext', coining the term in the 60s for a non-hierarchical way of organising materials and ideas. He has continued his work into structures that offer an alternative to the prevalent interfaces of our day. Whether or not he relishes his position as outside the mainstream, he used it to good effect in his talk, punctuating his descriptions of his own progress with lacerating comments on the industry." continued ... (Via Usability News)
Not the true nature of a cow.
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