Customer Reviews

Computer Lib/Dream Machines (Tempus)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ted Nelson has given us a vision. The vision, and this book itself describe a paradox: quaint and futuristic at the same time. It's two books in one cover, and it's easy to pick up and read at any point. Bring it back in print so more can enjoy it! This author coined the term "hypertext", and describes a universe slightly parallel to ours, where the WorldWideWeb is known as Xanadu, where electronic documents are linked and not embedded; where authors could receive monetary credit for citations or purchases. My copy of this book is from the Microsoft Press reprints in the 80's. I still fondle it often. It's one of those books that get stolen from your bookshelf, or you leave on the table for months. I find the author can explain computer science and computer graphics in simple, fun terms. This book is a classic computer book, and it explains the wonder and the pleasure that some people get from computers in a wildly creative way. It's a love story, it's a "punk hacker" story, it's a tragedy. The source code to xanadu has been released this year, revitalizing the questions raised in this book. Not everyone will agree with Ted Nelson, but I think this is a great book.

Theodor Nelson is an academic and computer visionary who is generally credited with creating the term "hypertext" in 1965. While hypertext had been conceived of as early as the 1940s, Nelson was the first to construct it within the context of the emerging computer technologies of the 1960s and 70s as a new mode of publication.

The word "visionary" gets thrown around quite a bit when one talks about computers and the Internet: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos ... all visionaries. And then you read this book, which originally appeared in the 1970s, based on ideas Nelson developed in the 1960s, and you discover what visionary really means.

Dream Machines is a bona fide computer culture classic; it is shocking that such an influential and important book is out of print.

When the first self-published edition came out in 1974, Ted Nelson's two-sided classic about the current and wished-for state of computers-as-cultural-tool had the memetic impact of a big ol' 2 x 4 to the forehead on the few who read it.

In an era when IBM dominated the industry, and the best most social critics could come up with vis-a-vis computers was an incoherent babble about punch cards and Big Brother, it revealed a side of computing few had seen, and dared to dream about knowledge-sharing networks and graphic interfaces.

In 1989, I bought two dozen copies of this book (Microsoft Press edition). I gave some copies to friends, but most went to my co-workers at a small home-PC company. It was a coolness test. People who talked about it, who GOT it, I had hope for. Those who didn't get it, or scoffed, I marked as duffers. Alas, this included many of the company's higher ups.

Why only four stars for what was once an utterly invaluable tome, a source of inspiration, a shining literary beacon of hope? Mostly because much of what Computer Lib / Dream Machines advocated has come to pass (albeit in ways that Nelson would probably not prefer). Partially because the battle to complete the job has moved into other spheres: Legal, commercial, and the nitty-gritty work of actual product creation.

If you see a copy, or either edition, BUY IT.

I discovered this book while working at Microsoft. They have 3 copies! It is the most profound book on computer systems, information networks and how to become a literate computer user/advocate ever written. If you find a copy I will pay top dollar for it!