Apparently I am very easily influenced, because after reading “Computer Lib/ Dream Machines” by Theodor Nelson, I like him even more than Engelbart! This is in large part due to Nelson’s more casual, accessible writing style, “Like a letter to a nephew,” he says, or “a photography magazine- breezy, forceful, and as vivid as possible.” I felt like Nelson had a good grasp on the way “laymen” think of computers and their accessories: cold, inhuman, unwelcoming. He recognizes (even back in ‘74) that a chasp between computer ‘experts’ and laymen was widening, and that this was tragic. Everyone should know how to incorporate computers into their everyday lives, he said: “No one can get a simple sout-to-nuts overview of what computers are really about, without technical or mathematical mumbo-jumbo, complicated examples, or talking down. This book is an attempt.”

“No More Teacher’s Dirty Looks” was my favorite Nelson article. I loved the way he criticized the educational system, articulating flaws that every student has felt, but never said. “To want students to be ‘normal’ is criminal, when we are all so far below our potential,” he says. (No Child Left Behind, anyone?)

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