I once was in Manhattan with Dr. Engelbart during the NIME conference (New Interfaces for Musical Expression). We were riding the subway together. I think he

I once was in Manhattan with Dr. Engelbart during the NIME conference (New Interfaces for Musical Expression). We were riding the subway together. I think he must've seen the poster (presentation) I was carrying and we struck up a conversation. It ranged over all kinds of topics: ergonomics, performance/audience interpretation, mechanical vs. gestural control, etc. I remember us being pretty sharply critical over each other's ideas, and just being skeptical of "good" solutions in general for the problems of modern musical control. Of course, I didn't realize who he was at the time. I only had seen grainy old videos of him from decades ago. I'm really glad I didn't recognize his face at first. You see, he had always been a huge hero of mine, and a big motivation for me to go to grad school. For a brief moment, we got to argue over small technical details as if we were any old pair of jaded researchers. It was a totally normal exchange in any other context, and a highlight in hindsight.