Computer LibIDream Machines

	Computer L;blDream Machines	rT:;AU.

	Ted Nelson started the entire genre of main5tream com-	COMPtlTERS
	puter bools ;n 1574 with a Who~ Eorth Catalog-sized	S~mew~efe
	polem/c col/ed Computer L,b/Dream Mach~nes. L'ke	Ir~stde almost
	an Ace pulp sc~ence-f~c~on novel ft came ~n two halves,
	bound upside-down tagether. The ''Lib" side was a taurist	eV~ obsiect,
	guide to ova;lable computers and the corporate politics	~se days, is
	behind them, the ''Dream'' side showed us evanesrent	a ifflfe p~
	innovations tbot (Nelson knew) wouid reshape everyone's	ceaar
	/;ves. (One of these noscent innovations was "Hyper-	E~ors,
	text''Äin which text or p;ctures contain "lints, " or	dnnk ma.
	passages fEraugh which people con metophorically leep	chines, gas
	to other ;nformotion important to them. Nelson is the	pumps, the
	most prom~nent papular/zer of th~s ~dea, wh~ch he has	jamrned cash
	devated much of his working tife to developing, and	tet7~e.- U~at
	wEich ;s now itself tinked with variaus suddenly prom;-
	nent programs like HyperCard and the forthcoming	just happens
	Now Nelson has voraciausly vpdated both halves of his	IlPÄall
	oJd book. The format ;s (o bit too much) old stuff vpdated	~ a" peCu-
	cop~ously w~th br~ll/ant new stuff. Am~dst v~c~ously well-	JiarfUes
	targeted assessments of machmes, metophors and man-
	utocturers, you will be guided tErc ugh hacker in-ickes	basod on
	and slilled pifhy iudgements. Nelson ;5 sometimes iastly	i?OW S®T.
	criticized for qulrkiness and self-indulgence; but he has	piogrammer
	an innate abi/ity to judge the significonce of porticolar	thought
	technologles, shared by few other writers. He has, in this	a~out U,e
	edition, also recreated whot was then and i5 still the	problern.
	most fun-to-read computer book of all time.
	ÄArt Kleiner

	Computer Libl
	Drec~m Machines
	Ted l~lelson
	1987; 330 pp.
	$] 8.95
	($20.95 postpaid) from:
	Microsoh Press
	Attn.: Consumer Sales
	16011 36th Way/Box ,ø7017
	Redmond, WA 98073-9717
	800/426-9400
	or Whole Eorth Access

	The ALL-PURPOSE Machine
	Computers are COMPLETELY GENERAL, with no fixed
	purpose or s~yle oF operation. In spite of this, the strange
	myth has evolved tbot computers are somebow "math-
	ematical. "
	Actually von Neumann, who got the general idea about
	as soon as anybody (1940sJ, called the computer
	THE ALL-PURPOSE MACllINE.
	(Indeed, the first backer of computers oher World War II
	was a maker of mu~ti-lightbulb signs. It is an interesting
	possiLility that if he had not been killed in an airplane
	crash, computers wouid have been seen first as text-
	hc~ndling and picture-taking machines, and only later
	developed for mathematics and business.)
	We wouid call it the All-Purpose Machine here, except
	that for historical reasons it has been slapped with the
	other name.
	But tbot doesn't mean it has a fixed wc y of operating.
	On the contrary.
	COMPUTERS HAVE NO NATURE AND NO CHARACTER9
	sove that which has been put into them by whoever is
	creating the program for a particular purpose. Com-
	puters are, unlike any other piece of equ;pment, perfectly
	BLANK. And tRat is how we hcve projected on it so
	mcny difFerent faces.

Release 1.0

~e most /;terate ond informed writ-
;ng on the technology of thinting
comes on the gray, typewritten pages
of this very expensive newsletter. For
many of its sobscribers, ;~'s an unbe-
lievoble borga;n. /ns~eco'of tramping
to the computer ;ndustry's most tan-
tolizing conferences, they con read
Esther Dyson~s personabIe regarts,
and sook vp more than they wouid
by being there. Dyson deciphers
esateric technical ;ssues ;nto oh-l-
get-;~! languoge, further refined by
an ;mpenetrable filter against PR
hype. Moreaver, she has an unerring
nose for the sign;ficont consequence.
Tolk ~ library into subseriting.

ÄKevin lfelly

My favorite computer read i5 Re-
lease 1.0, a pricey monthly from

K0~-~R ~SON'S

V 1~ D? ~E Mo~'

,~ c~ v~,lJ ~

	. ~Rc~l ~rll "	)

C9~?V`< P~3 )

T~, u - - ~ ~u

	My position on telavision is tbet televisior~ is
movies t:hat follow a slorted schodule. The
time-slot deorees the r~ature of telavision juse
as surely as the time-slot decrees the nat~re of
schooling in our c``rrent system.

PUBL IC REPOS ITORY SYSTEM
WITH PLURALISTIC RE-USE,
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