Prof. Alan Kay
Viewpoints Research Institute
1209 Grand Central Avenue
Glendale, CA, USA, 91201

"The Computer Revolution Hasn't Happened Yet"

The research community that invented the personal computer and the
Internet were inspired and guided by the transformative nature of the
printing press. Although it looked as if it was just automating hand
copied document production, the combination of being able to hold new
kinds of arguments, being able to massively transmit those arguments
with a much higher probability of finding receptive minds, and that
it could vastly aid in the teaching of how to use itself, allowed the
printing press to completely transform human thought and "how thought
was thought about". This took 150 years, but the change was
qualitative. It was clear that the same possibilities obtained for
the personal computer and Internet. The easy part would be covering
the Earth and copying and transmitting already existing media. The
hard (and much longer part) would be to gradually get the general
public to learn what was new and important: that the computer brings
forth entirely new ways to represent ideas, expose and exhibit them,
and to argue about them. Most of the sciences have started to undergo
the transformations in thought brought by computing, but most of the
general (and especially voting) public has not. The printing press
was invented in the mid-15th century, but its revolution happened in
the 17th. The computer was invented in the mid-20th century and its
real revolution is yet to happen. This talk will try to show what
that revolution will be like when it happens, and why it will be at
least as big as the printing revolution.