2008 Hand-Drawn Mural Illustrating Engelbart's Co-Evolution Hypothesis

An expansive hand-drawn mural drawn in 2008 by Eileen Clegg and Valerie Landau in collaboration with computer science pioneer Douglas Engelbart (signed). The mural illustrates the 'Engelbart Hypothesis', a theory of human-computer co-evolution and how it evolved from roughly 1925 to 2008. It was produced in Palo Alto for the 40th university of the 'Mother of all Demos', a landmark event on December 9, 1968 in which Engelbart and the Stanford Research Institute demonstrated prototypes for the mouse, the chorded keyboard, hyperlinks, meta tagging, and more, forming the bases of modern human-computer interface (worth watching on YouTube).

A Closer Look

The image is composed of colored magic marker on a roughly 16-foot-long roll of Tyvek. It details Engelbart's vision of a co-evolution of 'human and tool' systems as a framework for global collaboration, data sharing, and problem solving that would, in his words, 'raise the collective IQ to solve urgent and complex problems. It is arranged roughly chronologically, covering from 1925 to about 2010 (in the future at the time). The period from 1950 - 70, when Engelbart's vision coalesced, is highlighted with a sun-like trinity-formation at center.

The bright colors and graphic elements illustrate key insights, breakthroughs, collaborations, 'big events', and more that Engelbart argued brought about 'shifts in human behavior.' These range from 'systems thinking' to 'collective unconscious', to the 'concept of cyberspace', to 'social networking', the 'blogosphere', etc. In the end, he highlights major commercial developments emerging from his work: 'Apple hits 1 billion iTunes', 'Google becomes a verb', 'Logitech to sell 1 billionth mouse', and the rise of the 'World of Warcraft'. Although no 'urgent and complex problems' are identified as 'solved', the mural underscores the optimistic perspective that remains pervasive in tech-circles that ultimately science and technology will save us all.

The mural - and a second in our possession - was presented at the December 2008 'Program for the Future, a conference at the Tech Museum in San Jose, and later at subsequent tech events at SAP, Google, and elsewhere. It retains 18 Post-it notes applied during these events, and even a polaroid of 'Engelbart' signing the piece. The inclusion of the Post-it notes underscores Engelbart's approach to his own vision as a collaborative and evolving process in which he invites others to participate.

Douglas Engelbart (1925 - 2013)

Douglas Engelbart (1925 - 2013) was an American computer science pioneer and engineer active in California. Engelbart is credited with laying the foundations of thought and development of modern computing, including the hyperlink, windows, and the mouse. He was born in Portland, Oregon and received his first degree, in electrical engineering, from Oregon State university in 1948.

His studies were interrupted by naval service during World War II (1939 - 1945), where he served as a radar technician in the Philippines. During his service, he was inspired by a July 1945 Atlantic Monthly article by Vannevar Bush, As We May Think. The article surveyed technological advances made during the war and posited that they would, in the future, accelerate human creativity by aiding in the computation, recording, and communication of data.

Fresh with inspiration, Engelbart went on to peruse a 1953 PhD in electrical engineering from UC-Berkeley, where he worked to produce larger and better 'calculating machines'. Nonetheless, his intellectual passion was in developing technology that could foster human creativity and collaboration in a virtuous cycle of 'co-evolution' that would generate 'networked humans' thus elevating the 'Collective IQ'.

After graduating from Berkeley, Engelbart joined the Menlo Park Stanford Research Institute (SRI). There he founded the Augmentation Research Center (ARC), where he developed the oN-Line System (NLS) for human-computer interface: these included the chorded keyboard, an early window's interface, hyperlinks, and the mouse. He unveiled these in 'the mother of all demos' on December 9, 1968 (a video of this remarkable moment is available on YouTube). Engelbart never commercialized his ideas and his ARC lab fell apart due to internal fighting. ARC itself was acquired by other organizations, ultimately by McDonnell Douglas in 1984. ARC's NLS technologies were however, ultimately adopted by others, including Steve Jobs.

He retired from ARC in 1986 and two years later, in 1988 founded the Bootstrap Institute to propagate his philosophies and vision. It now operates as the Engelbart Institute. Engelbart himself was widely feted with awards, including the 1997 Turing Award in recognition of his 'inspiring vision of the future of interactive computing and the invention of key technologies to help realize this vision.' In 2000, he also awarded the National Medal of Technology from Bill Clinton. And on December 9, 2008, the 40th anniversary of his 'mother of all demos', the Stanford Research Institute hosted the 'Engelbart and the Dawn of Interactive Computing' conference.

Despite these accolades, Engelbart saw himself as a failure. His work did not bring about the harmonious 'co-evolution' he imagined, but rather was appropriated and commercialized by others. It did however lay the groundwork of modern mainstream computing, giving rise to social media and trolls, email and spam, broad data dissemination and fake news. But! it might very well still set the stage for the realization of his vision of using collaborative technology to solve the world's greatest problems. Offered in collaboration with Boston Rare Maps.