Book People Archive

Re: invention? or dead end? or still a dream to this very day?

There is no doubt that Alan is one of the great visionaries of modern times,
and when teamed up with the likes of Steve Jobs -- well the results are
plain and obvious to anyone smarter than the average fool.

I wonder, though, if his denial of success or completion has anything to do
with the annoying commercialism that is attached to every techno-wonder
created in the world?

Allen Kleiman


-----[From the] Original Message-----
From: Bowerbird@[redacted] [mailto:Bowerbird@[redacted] 
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 1:19 PM
To: spok+bookpeople@[redacted] Bowerbird@[redacted]
Subject: [BP] invention? or dead end? or still a dream to this very day?

http://www.honco.net/os/kay.html said:
>    "[In 1968], Kay had envisioned the Dynabook, which
>    he described as "a portable interactive personal computer,
>    as accessible as a book." The Dynabook would be
>    linked to a network and offer users a synthesis of
>    text, visuals, animation and audio. Kay drew an initial
>    pen and ink sketch of this device, which is widely considered
>    the prototype for the notebook computer. Today, most
>    portable computers contain all the technology his vision
>    would require, yet Kay has insisted in his talks and writings
>    that the Dynabook remains a dream. "

so, from alan kay _himself_, his vision still "remains a dream".

of what are we to make of this?