3 ms·

"Albert Einstein, explainer of Brownian motion"...

by Vivtek 13y ago

hga 13y ago
Hmmm, I can't think of anything better in a short headline. It does at least give the layman the tiniest idea.... E.g. more accurate but not headline quality: "Douglas C. Engelbart, Inventor of Modern Computer Interface Except For Graphics...." Can't say "Windows" since that has too close an association with the Microsoft brand, and most think they're inherently graphical. For Einstein they could have said "Explainer of the Universe...."
- saraid216 13y ago
  I explained him to a friend of mine as "basically the father of HCI". It's not precisely true, but it captures the gist and import better than "he invented the computer mouse".
networked 13y ago
I'd go with "computing pioneer". Then again, that headline could be less likely to encourage people to read on and find out what Engelbart actually did.
- vanderZwan 13y ago
  Well, as is the headline just makes him sound like some oddbal inventor who didn't do much else worth discussing.
- bowerbird 13y ago
  i'd say "brilliant visionary of the computer's potentials." that still misses the fact that the world failed to develop those possibilities in any meaningful way, but that kind of myopia would be hard to address no matter what one said... -bowerbird
  - matthewmacleod 13y ago
    >that still misses the fact that the world failed to develop those possibilities in any meaningful way I don't know about that. I'm frequently engaged in realtime collaborative editing of rich, interactive datasets with people on the other side of the planet. The specific mechanisms Engelbart pioneered underlie most of that infrastructure. In under 50 years, we've progressed from the relatively abstract methods he developed, to actually seeing systems developed on those principles in the wild, in frequent use by literally billions of people. I think you do a disservice to all of those who have helped to bring this about by discarding their work as "myopic".
    - bowerbird 13y ago
      i'm sorry if you feel personally offended, but if you think that today's computers (which are thousands of times more powerful than the ones that engelbart was working with) are -- to use his phrase -- "augmenting human intellect", then i would certainly like to have you tell me how. because i see society using these supercomputers to exchange pictures with their high-school chums on facebook, and instagram photos of their lunch. and (let us not forget) to _track_ those people, so we know the best advertisements to serve up. all of which might be acceptable trade-offs _if_ we were also augmenting human intellect as well. but we're not. so it certainly appears to me that the only things we are "augmenting" is our stupidity and our greed. and if you bring this to the attention of anyone, they'll turn the blame on you for "being negative". sheesh... -bowerbird
      - matthewmacleod 13y ago
        > if you think that today's computers are ... "augmenting human intellect", then i would certainly like to have you tell me how. Isn't it obvious? I have immediate access, in almost every physical location, to a data store which, while not quite the sum total of human knowledge, is pretty close to it. It's meticulously organised, indexed, hyperlinked, and easy-to-use. The fact that many people (including me) use this for social interaction too does not detract from that at all. You are essentially writing off the entire Web as nothing more than Facebook, Instagram and Google Adsense.
ralmeida 13y ago
For what it's worth, as of right now the title reads "Computer Visionary Who Invented the Mouse" (the URL remains the same as the title posted in HN, which leads me to believe the title was changed). The article itself is rather long, and I found it a thorough professional biography. The headline was meant to grab the attention of the laymen, and I think losing a little perspective in order to raise general awareness and relateability of the piece to the general public is acceptable in this case.

"Albert Einstein, explainer of Brownian motion"...

by Vivtek 13y ago

"Albert Einstein, explainer of Brownian motion"...

hga 13y ago

Hmmm, I can't think of anything better in a short headline. It does at least give the layman the tiniest idea.... E.g. more accurate but not headline quality: "Douglas C. Engelbart, Inventor of Modern Computer Interface Except For Graphics...." Can't say "Windows" since that has too close an association with the Microsoft brand, and most think they're inherently graphical. For Einstein they could have said "Explainer of the Universe...."

saraid216 13y ago
I explained him to a friend of mine as "basically the father of HCI". It's not precisely true, but it captures the gist and import better than "he invented the computer mouse".

networked 13y ago

I'd go with "computing pioneer". Then again, that headline could be less likely to encourage people to read on and find out what Engelbart actually did.

vanderZwan 13y ago
Well, as is the headline just makes him sound like some oddbal inventor who didn't do much else worth discussing.
bowerbird 13y ago
i'd say "brilliant visionary of the computer's potentials." that still misses the fact that the world failed to develop those possibilities in any meaningful way, but that kind of myopia would be hard to address no matter what one said... -bowerbird
- matthewmacleod 13y ago
  >that still misses the fact that the world failed to develop those possibilities in any meaningful way I don't know about that. I'm frequently engaged in realtime collaborative editing of rich, interactive datasets with people on the other side of the planet. The specific mechanisms Engelbart pioneered underlie most of that infrastructure. In under 50 years, we've progressed from the relatively abstract methods he developed, to actually seeing systems developed on those principles in the wild, in frequent use by literally billions of people. I think you do a disservice to all of those who have helped to bring this about by discarding their work as "myopic".
  - bowerbird 13y ago
    i'm sorry if you feel personally offended, but if you think that today's computers (which are thousands of times more powerful than the ones that engelbart was working with) are -- to use his phrase -- "augmenting human intellect", then i would certainly like to have you tell me how. because i see society using these supercomputers to exchange pictures with their high-school chums on facebook, and instagram photos of their lunch. and (let us not forget) to _track_ those people, so we know the best advertisements to serve up. all of which might be acceptable trade-offs _if_ we were also augmenting human intellect as well. but we're not. so it certainly appears to me that the only things we are "augmenting" is our stupidity and our greed. and if you bring this to the attention of anyone, they'll turn the blame on you for "being negative". sheesh... -bowerbird
    - matthewmacleod 13y ago
      > if you think that today's computers are ... "augmenting human intellect", then i would certainly like to have you tell me how. Isn't it obvious? I have immediate access, in almost every physical location, to a data store which, while not quite the sum total of human knowledge, is pretty close to it. It's meticulously organised, indexed, hyperlinked, and easy-to-use. The fact that many people (including me) use this for social interaction too does not detract from that at all. You are essentially writing off the entire Web as nothing more than Facebook, Instagram and Google Adsense.

ralmeida 13y ago

For what it's worth, as of right now the title reads "Computer Visionary Who Invented the Mouse" (the URL remains the same as the title posted in HN, which leads me to believe the title was changed). The article itself is rather long, and I found it a thorough professional biography. The headline was meant to grab the attention of the laymen, and I think losing a little perspective in order to raise general awareness and relateability of the piece to the general public is acceptable in this case.