Miranda's blog about the book Follow My Dreams

Influences and big issues.

It turns out there is more to connect Arthur with Doug than I first thought.
Doug was finishing his degree in electronics in 1945 when he was called up. He had chosen to study electronics at Oregon University because he was fascinated by radar and the secrecy that surrounded it during wartime. So he joined the Navy to train as an engineer technician. He sailed for the Philippines just as Japan surrendered. It was there in a thatched library he read about the concept of setting goals and working on big problems to assist mankind.

Doug's career was centred on collective intelligence via the interactive computer. He was 20 years ahead of his time.
"Douglas Engelbart never really gets credit for the larger contribution that he worked to create: an integrative and comprehensive framework that ties together the technological and social aspects of personal computing technology."
He was a new kind of person. This resonates so well with Arthur.

Arthur once said" he was concerned that certain parts of the world were progressing rapidly and becoming richer. These parts may become greedy and full of fear. The other parts of the world are caught in the spiral of hunger and poverty. He wished and hoped that people like us would balance the world."

Anyhow I wanted to share these thoughts because we are in a very serious place in the world's history - our politicians do not know how to handle the problems we face example: by 2017 official figures show we will have to find £70 billion just to pay the interest on the National Debt the equivalent of today's budget for Defence and Education put together. WHOW.