Tools For Thought

Tools for Thought - The History and Future of Mind-Expanding Technology by HowardRheingold

"The digital revolution did not begin with the teenage millionaires of Silicon Valley, claims Howard Rheingold, but with such early intellectual giants as Charles Babbage, George Boole, and John von Neumann. In a highly engaging style, Rheingold tells the story of what he calls the patriarchs, pioneers, and infonauts of the computer, focusing in particular on such pioneers as J. C. R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Bob Taylor, and Alan Kay. Taking the reader step by step from nineteenth-century mathematics to contemporary computing, he introduces a fascinating collection of eccentrics, mavericks, geniuses, and visionaries."
"The idea that people could use computers to amplify thought and communication, as tools for intellectual work and social activity, was not an invention of the mainstream computer industry or orthodox computer science, nor even homebrew computerists; their work was rooted in older, equally eccentric, equally visionary, work. You can't really guess where mind-amplifying technology is going unless you understand where it came from." -- http://www.rheingold.com/texts/tft/1.html

Tools must be important to programmers and Wikizens alike.

...noting, of course, that most Wikizens (here on WardsWiki, at least) are programmers.

Of course, but some are not both!

Really? They should be. No good comes of letting non-programming riff-raff hang out here, does it?

The tools we use have a profound (and devious!) influence on our thinking habits, and, therefore, on our thinking abilities.