❝Engelbart did not think of the computer as merely improving human thinking,
but as transforming the processes of our institutions
in a more profound way...❞
— Janet H. Murray, on
Inventing the Medium in
New Media Reader
❝Doug thought at scale. He understood that a car is not simply a faster tricycle. He had faith that an augmented intellect, joined to millions of other augmented intellects, could clarify individual thought even as it empowered vast new modes of thinking, new modes of complex understanding that could grasp intricately meaningful symbols as quickly and comprehensively as we can recognize a loved one's face.❞
— Gardner Campbell, Dreams About How The World Could Be
Welcome to our 'field guide' to Doug Engelbart's most seminal work. It all started with a vision for humanity and a comprehensive two-year study of what he came to call 'Augmenting the Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework', culminating in a comprehensive research report, an article distilling his findings, and a concise summary proposal (detailed below) – which then served as the guiding force behind his award-winning pioneering research throughout his career, and still inspires today.
Goal – The aim of this groundbreaking study was to flesh out his ideas for making the world a much better place in the fastest possible timeframe.
His basic premise?
If we could discover how teams could work dramatically smarter, better, faster, then all the initiatives tackling important challenges could be much more effective pursuing their mission.
❝By 'augmenting human intellect'
we mean
increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, to gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems.
Increased capability in this respect is taken to mean a mixture of the following:
more-rapid comprehension, better comprehension,
the possibility of gaining a useful degree of comprehension in a situation that
previously was too complex,
speedier solutions, better solutions, and the possibility of finding
solutions to problems that
before seemed insoluble.❞
— Doug Engelbart, in his Introduction to Augmenting Human Intellect
This would be especially important, he reasoned, in the midst of accelerating change (which he also predicted), where the issues and opportunities we face would be growing increasingly complex and urgent, at an unprecedented rate and scale. Consider it the grand challenge of grand challenges, important to success of organizations, communities, institutions, sectors, regions, whole nations, and cross-cutting efforts large and small.
In the course of this study, funded jointly by Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Doug forged a new discipline he called Augmenting the Human Intellect, with in-depth conceptual framework, research agenda, and strategic approach for bootstrapping the results at scale. The above writings, which summarize his findings and recommendations, were informed by these essential breakthrough discoveries:
What Augments Us: A Human-Centered Paradigm – Augmenting humans means equipping them with the necessary skills and know-how, along with any tools of the trade. Engelbart recognized this to be capability repertoire, essentially a system of interdependent parts which have been co-evolving over time. Thus we are already augmented, so how to improve on that. He boiled it all down to "Humans using Language, Artifacts, and Methodology in which they are Trained", or H-LAM/T system for short, employed as a system, improved through human-tool co-evolution and innovation.
Reflecting on his researh through this lens opened up a whole new vision of human intellect and the representation of thought, manipulation of concepts and symbols, where intelligence happens, intelligence amplification and synergy, and capability improvement, including what and whom to improve first, and the critical importance of co-evolving the whole system of interdependent parts in a balanced way.
Bootstrap Approach: Facilitating the Co-Evolution – It turns out 'augmenting human intellect' presents a special opportunity for the augmentation research teams. They can directly improve their own effectiveness by harnessing the results of their work.
"The feeding back of positive research results to improve the means by which the researchers themselves can pursue their work." This discovery led Engelbart to design a design strategy to capitalize on this positive-feedback, regenerative opportunity, with bonus provisions for facilitating and accelerating the human-tool co-evolution.
R&D funding ensued, and so the Augmenting Human Intellect Research Center (AHIRC) was born. In a few short years, following the core principles set forth in his Framework, Doug and his team forged a constellation of breakthrough firsts to herald in a new era in team effectiveness, as demonstrated first in 1968 in what is now known as the Mother of All Demos, again in 1969 with the 'sequel' to the Demo, and beyond. Pioneering firsts in organizational computing included interactive, hyperlinked, networked personal and collaborative computing, which he and his team co-evolved alongside organizational innovations and strategic design principles that were just as profound.
And for those efforts he was recognized with the National Medal of Technology & Innovation, the Turing Award, the Lemelson-MIT Prize, an Honorary Doctorate from Yale, and more, even as he continued pointing to the future through his collaborations, lectures and management seminars.
And now widely acclaimed:
"In one 1968 presentation, this inventor shaped modern computing"
- Smithsonian Magazine
"One of recent history's most acclaimed innovators"
- Inventors Digest
"Visionary is one of the most overused terms in tech,
but it almost seems insufficient
to explain just what Doug Engelbart was'
- Fast Company
In other words, Doug's conceptual framework for augmenting the human intellect drove one of the more revolutionary research agendas on record, and, like Einstein's Theory of Relativity, is still enormously relevant. And yet we have still barely scratched the surface of fully appreciating, let alone achieving, its true potential.
And all this traces back to this seminal study – the strategic thinking, big picture vision, phenomenal thought experiments, unifying conceptual framework, organizing principles, strategic approach, and application scenarios – which informed and shaped all subsequent work.
Browse with our usual enhanced navigation features (see About Our Website), or other formats as shown below.
For full citation and publication notes, including possible abridged versions, click the Citation hotlink.
Historical Note: Doug enclosed a copy of this summary with a letter to Vannevar Bush in May of 1962.
New! See also Case Examples under Papers below, as well as:
Audio: Readings of the first few sections of the 1962 report by Prof. Gardner Campbell for his Framework Annotation site, now available as a collection on our Audio Resources page, here's a teaser:
Watch Doug Engelbart briefly summarize his Framework in terms of research Goals, Approach, and Vehicle for Exploration (5 min.) during his now-famous 1968 Mother of All Demos, plus highlights of early research results packed into this Demo Trailer (5 min.). See event site for more.
Watch Professor Gardner Campbell deliver
Doug's 1962 Framework (12 min.) - presented
at the 2018
Engelbart Symposium celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Doug's legendary demo (offered at right). Dr. Campbell aptly coined the phrase 'Trails of wonder, rigorously explored' to describe the essential nature of human intellect that Engelbart was seeking to augment. 4a1
What
ever happened to Augmenting Human Intellect
- an O'Reilly Webinar by Scott McMurray, does an excellent job outlining
Doug's seminal work and the essence of his vision, with great visuals
(of course); includes how it might inform or inspire the field of data
visualization; he also covers the contributions of Vannevar Bush and
Charles Babbage.
4a4
Join the conversation at Professor Gardner Campbell's Framework Annotation site
framework.thoughtvectors.net,
building on his guided group annotation of Doug's 1962 report, including video
conversations with guest annotators, and more. Prof. Campbell is a foremost Engelbart scholar and practitioner of Framework strategic principles.
4b1
Test drive the The
Mother of All Demos - our interactive video tour of the early implementation of Doug's Framework and Bootstrapping Strategy; for more on the demo visit theDemo.org including a short Trailer on the demo, fun facts, memorabilia, impact and a glimpse behind the scenes.
4b2
Visit the Virtual Exhibits from Doug's Lab
- our online exhibit space created from the Engelbart Archive Collection
- oral histories, texts, archive photos, video footage, arranged by topic
4b3
The research world and market forces took a very different trajectory, falling way short of the true potential Doug Engelbart laid out so clearly in his Framework, and proved out the basics in his own research – now more relevant than ever. He continued to iteratively refine, implement, and evolve his message throughout his career.
The Engelbart Academy
- watch Doug and friends articulate the strategic framework in
today's terms, along with paradigm shifts and strategies still needed to pursue what became known as the Unfinished Revolution.
4c2
Augmenting
Human Intellect: Then and Now
- To celebrate the 35th anniversary of his 1962 report, Doug and key team members
came together to reflect on what it was, what was accomplished
and what remains to be pursued. See the event site for details and to
watch their presentations.4c3
The Augmented Knowledge Workshop - Doug's historic 1986 presentation unfolding conceptual framework, tool evolution, and key framework principles for evolving toward full potential envisioned. See the event site for video, description, slides, items referenced, and more. Or sample framework highlights in the side panel above right.
4c4
Douglas
Engelbart: More Thoughts, TidBITS
- strategic vision for innovation "Douglas Engelbart can be credited with inventing much of the
computing paradigm we all use today, but have we missed his most important ideas?"3c2
The man who sees the future, U.S. News
- "Yet, all the brilliant things he has produced are mere baubles
compared to the ideas he's trying to get across."3c4
Videos - The Engelbart Academy and Videography
- links to the video collections of Doug's key talks, presentations, workshops, awards,
and conferences available online.
5b2
Complete Archives - visit the
Engelbart Archive Collection, a portal into his photos,
videos, texts, slides, demos, software, press coverage,
historic events, stories, and more.
5b3
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Wordle of 1962 Report