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MA ADA 2007 > articles > mind-amplifying technology

mind-amplifying technology

May 8, 08:40 PM · Penelope Dunbar

The idea that people use computers as a tool to amplify thought communication, social and intellectual activity has its foundation in another individuals imaginative and original vision . Doug Engelbart
was inspired by the possible accomplishments afforded to the computer amplified mind. Engelbart had identified the task involved in problem solving had reached a new level of complexity, due to the sheer amount of information and knowledge that had been generated. The key to successful problem solving was no longer in devising ways to expand our accumulation of knowledge but in developing tools to manage and integrate the by-product of problem solving. Computer technology could enable one to find and access the solutions to complicated problems that were already stored somewhere ,allowing one to be able to quickly gain the relevant comprehension to derive solutions to problems.He imagined a way of life in an “integrated domain where human hunches, cut-and-try , intangibles and the human “feel for a situation” usefully coexist with powerful concepts, streamlined technology and notation sophisticated methods and high-powered electronic aids”(Engelbart 1962)


Cyborg and Goddess, humans have always been compelled to imagine mythical hybrids and animated machines.They serve to illustrate and reflect our human processes and the boundaries between self and the world . The machine is an aspect of our human embodiement . Harraway(1991)

It was the coexistence of human intellect and machine technology which Engelbart hypothesized would be the next step in the evolution of human capabilities .

The internet today provides us with a tool which can augment our innate capacity to learn new things. The current technology harnesses our brain’s natural hardware and gives it new thinking tools. It is enhancing and developing the way we think. The hyperlink is being adapted to allow ever increasing interaction with the information being surveyed. Engelbart’s integrated domain has become a reality. Hyperwords a project run by UCL Interaction Centre. Frode Hegland has written a manefesto Liquid Liquid Information takes us a step closer to be able to actively select and interact with information. Hegland’s experimental system is geared toward allowing users, not just writers and editors ,to make connections. Instead of just viewing websites, readers can change the way information is presented, or relate it to other information elsewhere on the web.
Below is the lastest in wide field of view stereoscopic display – the next generation of new virtual and interactive media


Researchers at the the Interactive Media Division The University of Southern California are currently exploring ever more sophisticated ways of interacting with technology. One project Hypermedia Reveries uses an immersive installation to simulate a multisensory experience through a hybrid mix of realistic and fictional collages
samples

References

Engelbart, D (1962) Augmenting Human Intellect: A conceptual framework. [online] Available from: Last Accessed 4 May 2007

Haraway,D (1991) Simians, Cyborgs, Women:The reinvention of Nature. London:Routledge.

 

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