MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science


"As We May Think" --

A Celebration of Vannevar Bush's 1945 Vision,
An Examination of What Has Been Accomplished,
and What Remains to Be Done

Thursday, October 12 - Friday, October 13, 1995

Biography

Theodor Holm Nelson

Ted Nelson was always media-intensive. By the age of twenty-two, he had appeared on the professional stage and television and worked at the New York Times, had published (at college) his own newspaper, magazine, and first book, and had produced (at college) a 30-minute film, a long-playing record and the world's first rock musical.

But from the age of five he had also been intensely involved with the philosophy of ideas. His college work at Swarthmore postulated a new philosophy of arbitrary constructs, interconnection and correspondence.

These conflicting involvements of theater and theory made a career choice difficult, until his own Digital Convergence at the age of twenty-three. In 1960 he took a computer course and saw a chance to create a new world of interactive media -- a new fusion of literature and movies, based on arbitrary constructs, interconnection and correspondence.

Since then he has worked on digital media designs outside the prevailing paradigms.


To the symposium Agenda.
To MIT EECS home page. Your comments are welcome. Rev. PP Oct 3, 1995.