“There Was No Official Driver. We All Had To Help Drive.”

July 7, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

In the wake of computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart’s death (1 + 2) and the renewed fascination with him, his 20-year-old granddaughter Emily Mangan just did an Ask Me Anything at Reddit to discuss his life and work and his hopes for a hive approach to problem solving. A few exchanges follow.

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Question:

If there’s one thing dream of Engelbart’s that you could have fulfilled what would it be?

Emily Mangan:

I’m not sure what it would look like or in which capacity it would be fulfilled, but his dream for the longest time was to raise the collective IQ. Collective problem solving, human minds working in tandem, to better solve the world’s problems. That’s what I’d go for.

Question:

Can you speak to what he thought might contribute most to raising the collective IQ?

Emily Mangan:

I don’t know what he thought would contribute most, but I do know he was hopeful the computer could function as a tool to aid in the communication required for collective problem solving to advance. Reddit is actually an interesting place, I think. It has most everything required to organize people in a manner beneficial for collective problem solving. However, the last few times it was tried, it didn’t work out so well (e.g. trying to catch the boston bombers). I think the potential is there though.

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Question:

This article says Doug was unable to find funding for four decades. Did he ever talk about that with you? Was he actively seeking funding for new ideas and development?

Emily Mangan:

It’s true that funding was difficult to find. I do not know the actual period of time, but funding was always scare. His ideas were often too big and grand to consider paying for. While his genius is undisputed, some considered him a crackpot and others a prophet. He always wanted to find a way to raise the collective IQ, but besides that goal, I do not know of other ideas/developments in his later years. It may have been that he just didn’t think to share them while eating ice cream with grandkids.

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Question:

Did your grandpa ever show you the future we’ll be living in 40 years from now? You can tell us.

Emily Mangan:

He actually did show me the world 40 years from now, in a way. I was probably ten years old at the time. He drew a school bus with tons of wheels with the entire world inside. The bus was rapidly approaching the future, but there was no official driver. We all had to help drive. I just through it was interesting. Might still have that drawing somewhere.

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