Szymon Kaliski

Dynabook

Alan Kay, 1972

(source) ↗

• related to Smalltalk, Xerox Alto
• meta-medium - can simulate all existing media, and create new ones that can't exist without the computer
• built for children, to shape their thinking (debugging)
• interesting that turning point in this project was meeting Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon

the actual "Dynabook" idea came a few months later in the Fall of 1968 after I had visited Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon's first LOGO classrooms. This changed my view of computers and personal computers from just "vehicles" and "tools" to "meta-media" and "for children in important ways also".

In other words, what got added to the simple idea was "cosmic purpose", "service", "curricula", etc. The big hit from Papert and Solomon was that careful use and design of interactive computing could make a qualitative difference in the higher-level shaping of children's thinking — not just learning important things earlier, but in taking on a much more powerful "epistemological stance" towards the world they were growing up in — to the point where they should be able to think much better than most adults do today (not a big feat, but desperately needed), and be stronger shapers of the future (really desperately needed).

— https://www.quora.com/American-computer-pioneer-Alan-Kay-s-concept-the-Dynabook-was-published-in-1972-How-come-Steve-Jobs-and-Apple-iPad-get-the-credit-for-tablet-invention/answer/Alan-Kay-11 ↗

what is the carrying capacity for ideas of the computer?... the computer is a meta-medium - it can simulate any existing media also be the basis of media that can't exist without the computer. I was particularly drawn to the idea of better childhood education with the new possibilities to represent powerful ideas that the computer brought would be a strong way to help children "grow up thinking much better than most adults do today".

(...)

Tools solve very specific problems. Cut-and-paste is a tool. The lasso is a tool. Even something like changing the font size is a tool. A medium, by contrast, is a platform for some broad class of creative expression. You can imagine carrying out a meaningful creative project within such a medium. Photoshop is a medium. Microsoft Word is a medium. The web browser is a medium.

— https://mnielsen.github.io/notes/kay/dynabook.html#slide-38 ↗

Today we have the possibilities of: a DYNAmic Better Organization Of Knowledge, and we need to make this, and use it to the fullest.

— https://www.quora.com/If-Alan-Kay-made-an-introductory-technical-course-syllabus-to-teach-real-computer-science-to-undergraduates-what-would-be-on-it/answer/Alan-Kay-11 ↗

Backlinks

1. 2022-04-26Where Do Ideas Come From?²
2. 2020-12-28End of 2020¹