Actually, his primary example of "simulated learning" is more modest than you put it. Essentially, researchers really did and still do want to have computers as

Actually, his primary example of "simulated learning" is more modest than you put it. Essentially, researchers really did and still do want to have computers as a tool for performing experimental simulations and using computing for communication. Computing has been "marvelous" in advancing what scientists have been able to in the past couple of decades, and Apple is still very prevalent here today. For example, even today the "workstation" is still quite common in labs. Where I work, I see a lot of 8-core Mac Pros. Huddled away under desks are old G4s and G5s. What do we run on these machines? MATLAB, Mathematica, heavy Fortran compilers, expensive microscopes, and almost-real-time experimental setups. In other words, all stuff vital to scientific experiment and computation. Yes, he broadly lectured on "higher learning," but it is no surprise to me that the Web was born on a NeXT computer at CERN and not anywhere else. On the other hand, it is true that we have not seen the "simulated learning environments" or other AI-esque dreams from the 80s materialize in modern computing. At least not as we thought we understood them: OpenCourseWare, Khan Academy, and Stanford Online Education have begun to revolutionize the "learning" half. And as for open publications, well, the arXiv is 20 years old now (nearly the age of the Web!), the NIH requires open access 6 months after publication, etc. We're definitely not there yet, but I think we're on the right track. If there were one thing though which would mark a great leap in progress, it would be Open Data. The incentives don't really exist today for open data---data can be like a trade secret to be hoarded for publications, and getting ahead in academia is all about getting there first before you get scooped. We need broad, systemic changes.