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Alan Kay Decries the State of Computing
gnaremooz writes "Computer pioneer Alan Kay (DARPA in the '60s, PARC in the '70s, now HP Labs) declares 'The sad truth is that 20 years or so of commercialization have almost completely missed the point of what personal computing is about.' He believes that PCs should be tools for creativity and learning, and they are falling short."
Another computer visionary with vague promises and criticisms.
Instead of doing [insert clearly-defined practical thing here], you should be doing [insert vague semi-buzzword here, like "education", or "object"] and you should be using [insert visionary's product here] to do it.
I would think that since it's "Personal" computing, that the individual user can decide what it's all about to them. My mom uses her computer to keep in touch with me over email and instant messaging, and she trades stupid email jokes, programs, and malware with all of her friends. Those are pretty personal, non-business related uses if you ask me.
Maybe Kay should've tried to call it the Educational Computer instead of Personal computer all those years ago.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
They're the most unique and versatile tool ever invented by man, their purpose is whatever we choose it to be at the moment.
I think that's his point - they're the most unique and versatile tool ever invented, we could do anything, but what we use it for is 99% things we basically had before - business documents and simple calculations, games, video and audio replay/recording.
They could be so much more.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
How far have we really come in the last 30+ years of personal computing?
The personal computing revolution has stalled with the advent of the WWW. Excluding the MS virus, personal computing was making a lot of progress up until the mid 90's. Since then we've failed to truly exploit the power of both a computing platform and a means of communication. Somewhere along the way we've floundered. It's not necessarily a bad thing but think about where we could be.
Listen to the guy. He's really just asking where should we be?
Computers have made huge contributions to the art world. How can he think that we're falling short in creativity?
I work in the music field and almost all the innovation in the last 10 years has come from computers (embedded at first, PCs more recently). With Reason, you can turn out a decent tune in minutes. Live has introduced a whole new way to write and perform music. Those are my favorite examples but there are plenty more.
The film and art worlds have been equally influenced by computer technology.
Ok - I'll bite. And I'll bite for personal computing at large, rather than just as an Apple user (which I happen to be, but the below could be achieved on any platform).
The very interesting articles I've digging out recently are on how to play the clarinet. I do use my machines to write music. I quite definitely have my photo albums on the the machine. I'll add video to your list too, and DVD authoring. I'll add web authoring. I'll add accounts - not exciting, but definitely simulating ideas. I'll add communciation - email and video conferencing with friends who are at least hundred of miles away, in some cases on a different continent. In my case, I'll add development and web authoring. And yes, when circumstances allow I sit in my garden and use the 802.11g connection.
I honestly, truly, have no idea what Alan Kay is on about. Generalising the whole of computing on a business knocking out office documents is a bit poor. Then again, the article didn't have much in the way of direct quotes from Mr. Kay - perhaps his main thrust has been misunderstood?
Cheers,
Ian
You can't teach anyone to be creative.
I don't know if that's true or not, but you can definitely teach people not to be creative. And that's just exactly what we're doing when we don't give our kids enough art, music, math, and language education.
You either are, or are not.
Maybe, but I tend to think that mostly everyone is born with a creative brain. Some kids grow up learning that it's okay and fun and good to think outside the box and are encouraged to solve their own problems in their own ways. Others grow up getting smacked for coloring outside the lines and are told not to think for themselves.
That said, I think there are a few useful tools to aid the creative process, writing, drawing, music, etc., but I don't believe there are many, if any, tools to enhance the creative process. Maybe computers can't do that.
I'm not sure what the differences is between "aid" and "enhance" above, but one way that computers can aid/enhance the creative process is to stop impeding it. There's probably a whole book to be written on this topic (and Kay might be the guy to do it), but in short I think that software often tends to get in the way more than it helps.
In the beginning, there were assorted ridiculous input systems such as punch cards, paper tapes, and (ha!) rows of switches. Computers weren't much fun to use, and way too expensive for most creative endeavors. (That's not to say that the pioneers of our industry weren't creative.) And then came terminals and command lines, and life was good! Much better than before, but still so expensive that you had to be a really smart and already creative college kid just to get to use one for a bit. (Read Steven Levy's "Hackers" for more on this.) Then came personal computers, which were relatively affordable and inspired all sorts of creativity.
But still, we were stuck with the command line, and you pretty much needed to learn all about "right" and "wrong" ways to do things, and if you did something "wrong" the computer normally did something unfriendly. (Note that text adventure games were wildly popular during this time, possibly because they encouraged one to explore a new world, and aside from maybe getting temporarily killed there wasn't much that you could do that was "wrong.") When GUI's first came into public consciousness with the Apple Lisa (there were others, but a normal person might actually have a shot at touching a Lisa), there was a lot of interest because with this strange new computing paradigm, you could tell the computer to do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted, and there was little that you could do that was "wrong." At $10,000, though, Lisa's were too expensive for most folk. Then the Mac came along and people loved it. It was relatively affordable, and easy to use, and people (Microsoft included) did all sorts of interesting things with it. Even with just two apps, MacWrite and MacPaint, people were transfixed for hours just playing and creating and exploring. About the worst thing you could do resulted in having to swap the floppy disk five or ten times.
These days, computers are a lot more difficult and scary to use. No, don't open that attachment! You never know, it might contain a virus. Don't plug you computer into the network if you don't know the "right" way to do it, because hackers might take over your computer. Why did you set up your document like that? You've got it all wrong. Which of these 300 different commands that do a very specific thing do you want, and in what order?
Tools which inspire creativity are simple ones which don't have a "right" and "wrong" way to use them. Tools like Logo and MacPaint and paintbrushes and drums. You get that sort of (software) tool most often in the early and middle phases of a products life, when a product is implemented enough to be useful, but before the manufacturer needs to justify the next seven updates and throws in all manner of kitchen sink features.
Friends, it's time to demand simpl
you missed his point entirely.
He _knows_ it's a browser, his assertion is that HTTP should have been like WebDAV from the beginning, and that instead of writing a browser, they should have written a browser with authoring capabilities.
The trouble is, that you're looking at the world as it is now, and saying "it's obvious, this is how things should be", instead of looking back and asking yourself how things could be different....
Sure, he's not going to change anything by saying what he's saying, but that doesn't mean it's not worth saying.
Personally I pretty much agree with the overall sentiment - When I was a kid my first computer experiences were with the 8 bit home PCs of the 80s - the ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Commodore (16/+4 and 64) and Amstrad CPC - and every single one of those did far more for me in terms of encouraging my creativity than a modern PC does. Simply because they came with BASIC built in. Programming was what you _did_ and it was so easy to get started. These days the barrier to entry is much higher, and if you look at Windows, it doesn't even come with a programming language any more. At least DOS had QBasic - In fact, Dos with QBasic was almost as good as the 8bit machines...
Advanced users are users too!
I always remind myself that before the Internet stepped in, I did use my computer for creativity, especially music composition (on various "trackers" for Amiga, if you must know).
Come to think of it, it was pretty amazing given the poor technology of the times (a mere 2 MB RAM, endless floppy-swapping -- later, a "huge" 20 MB HD). The creativity of the programmers was itself amazing. They did their sound mixing routines alright, MIDI + sample synchro, and the user interface--the user interface!!--was the best thing ever.
And yet today, maybe 100 times the number of Windows PCs is out there, with 100 times the CPU power each, but I still can't find an honest tracker for my Windows machine-- when I say honest, I mean that won't crash my PC or will ask that I buy a damn compatible soundcard. I also mean "free," I mean come on, who's going to spend C-notes worth of professional sequencer software for just dabbling around!!
Dudes in the 90's, up there in Finland & other places, were swamping Europe with their trackers at a time when "electronic distribution" was a euphemism for a network of enthusiasts swapping floppies through the post and holding "copy parties" in each other's place.
Now we got the Internet for distribtion, we got fairly less fragmentation in the OS space, and you'd have thought it'd all have made it much easier?? Think again!
Sure, back then we weren't able to download Britney Spears MP3 for free... Hell, if we had, we wouldn't even have had the CPU power to decode it!! But what's the new thing there? I mean, you just listen to the same music as in the store, except cheaper...
To conclude: quit consuming pr0n and mp3's, start coding mind-opening stuff for masses to discover their own talents!
(and stop reading / posting on Slashdot too, I might add)
When a severely brain-damaged friend of my son gets to free himself for a few hours with Counterstrike, where he can jump and twirl and join the general melee as any other kid, I know Alan Kay is decidedly wrong.