Response to "Augmenting Human Intellect" by Douglas Engelbart

I read "Augmenting Human Intellect" and for a large portion of the reading it was difficult for me to transform the words that Engelbart uses into visuals in my mind. Reading about frameworks which are just systems for computer processes is entirely what we take for granted when we think what a computer does (or should be able to do). When I try to imagine a world where data is stored either in peoples minds or as text in a book or related medium (analogically?), it is clear that Engelbart's ideas were meant to make a digitalized framework that is analogous to the human mind, but doesn't have the shortcomings that the human mind has (forgetfulness and/or other general absentmindedness). The frameworks for data serve as somewhere closer to physical, though arguably digital isn't physical, structures of data collection. I find it really fascinating that someone could conceive of creating a data storage space (that is also capable of designing programs) that exists as something different than physical storage; of course now we take this type of not-wholly-physical, existent space for granted, but back before computers and the digital age, how could someone conceive of a place that is somewhere between the physical and mental and put data there. So to relate this whole thing to that twilight zone episode, I can see how difficult it would be to understand or comprehend something like a computer, which could easily lead to fear. In contemporary America, and many, many other places in the world, digital space is necessary for all modern conveniences, whether we can conceive of what that digital space is or not, it's a normality.