Douglas Engelbart’s Unfinished Revolution 道格拉斯·恩格爾巴特：不只是鼠標(biāo)之父

Douglas Engelbart knew that his obituaries1） would laud him as “Inventor of the Mouse.” I can see him smiling wistfully2）， ironically， at the thought. The mouse was such a small part of what Engelbart invented.

We now live in a world where people edit text on screens， command computers by clicking， communicate via audio-video and screen-sharing and use hyperlinks to navigate through knowledge—all ideas that Engelbart’s Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute invented in the 1960s. But Engelbart never got support for the larger part of what he wanted to build， even decades later when he finally got recognition for his achievements. When Stanford honored Engelbart with a two-day symposium3） in 2008， they called it “The Unfinished Revolution.”

To Engelbart， computers， interfaces and networks were means to a more important end—amplifying human intelligence to help us survive in the world we’ve created. He listed the end results of boosting what he called “collective IQ4）” in a 1962 paper， “Augmenting5） Human Intellect.” They included “more-rapid comprehension … better solutions， and the possibility of finding solutions to problems that before seemed insoluble.” If you want to understand where today’s information technologies came from， and where they might go， the paper still makes good reading.

Engelbart’s vision for more capable humans， enabled by electronic computers， came to him in 1945， after reading inventor and wartime research director Vannevar Bush6）’s Atlantic Monthly article “As We May Think.” Bush wrote： “The summation7） of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious8） rate， and the means we use for threading through9） the consequent maze10） to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged11） ships.”

That inspired Engelbart， a young electrical engineer， to come up with the idea of people using screens and computers to collaboratively solve problems. He worked on his ideas for the rest of his life， despite being warned over and over by people in academia and the computer industry that his ideas of using computers for anything other than scientific computations or business data processing was “crazy” and “science fiction.”

Englebart knew right from the start that screens， input devices， hardware， and software could allow the necessary collaborative problem-solving only as part of a system that included cognitive， social， and institutional changes. But he found introducing new ways for people to work together more effectively， the lynchpin12） of his overall vision， more difficult than transforming the way humans and computers interact.

Engelbart labored for most of his life and career to get anyone to think seriously about his ideas， of which the mouse was an essential but low-level component. Only for one decade did he get significant backing. In 1963， the U.S. Defense Department provided the wherewithal13） for Engelbart to assemble a team， create the future， and blow the mind of every computer designer in the world by way of what has come to be known as “the mother of all demos.”

I first met Engelbart in 1983 in his Cupertino14） office in a small building that was completely surrounded by the Apple campus. A company that no longer exists， Tymshare， had purchased what was left of Engelbart’s lab and hired him after the Stanford Research Institute stopped supporting the Augmentation Research Center due to the Department of Defense withdrawing funding.

Engelbart noted with dismay that although the personal computer was evolving quickly， the other elements of his plan weren’t. At the time， personal computers weren’t networked to one another—as terminals of large computers could be at the time—and they lacked a mouse or point-and-click15） interface.

Engelbart told me in our first conversation， as I’m sure he must have told many others， that the computer and mouse were just the “artifacts” in a system that centered on “humans using language， artifacts， and methodology.”

In the late 1980s， Engelbart set up his self-funded Bootstrap16） Institute to try and get his ideas about working more effectively the acceptance his artifacts had. He developed ways of analyzing how people acted inside an organization and specific techniques that he claimed would boost “collective IQ.” A set of detailed presentations on those methodologies started with what he called CODIAK17）. “Collective IQ is a measure of how effectively a collection of people can concurrently18） develop， integrate and apply its knowledge toward its mission，” Engelbart’s emphasized.

Mouse manufacturer Logitech provided office space， but the Bootstrap Institute—staffed by Engelbart and his daughter Christina—never sold bootstrapping， collective IQ， or CODIAK to any funder， major company or government department.

Engelbart’s failure to spread the less tangible parts of his vision stems from several circumstances. He was an engineer at heart， and engineers’ utopian solutions don’t always account for the complexities of human social institutions. He only added a social scientist to his lab just before it was shut down.

What’s more， Engelbart’s pitches19） of linked leaps in technology and organizational behaviors probably sounded as crazy to 1980s corporate managers as augmenting human intellect with machines did in the early 1960s. In the end， the way Silicon Valley companies work changed radically in recent decades not through established companies going through the kind of internal transformations Engelbart imagined， but by their being displaced by radical new start-ups.

When I talked with him again in the mid-2000s， Engelbart marveled that people carry around in their pockets millions of times more computer power than his entire lab had in the 1960s， but the less tangible parts of his system had still not evolved so spectacularly.

Like Tim Berners-Lee20）， Engelbart never sought to own what he contributed to the world’s ability to know. But he was frustrated to the end by the way so many people had adopted， developed and profited from the digital media he had helped create， while failing to pursue the important tasks he had created them to do.

道格拉斯·恩格爾巴特生前就知道他會(huì)在訃告中被譽(yù)為“鼠標(biāo)的發(fā)明者”。我仿佛能看到他在想到這一點(diǎn)時(shí)那悵然若失、帶有諷刺意味的微笑——鼠標(biāo)是恩格爾巴特全部發(fā)明中如此小的一部分。

在我們?nèi)缃裆畹倪@個(gè)世界里，人們?cè)谄聊簧暇庉嬑谋?，通過(guò)點(diǎn)擊來(lái)操控計(jì)算機(jī)，通過(guò)音頻、視頻和屏幕共享來(lái)溝通，利用超鏈接來(lái)暢游知識(shí)海洋——所有這些創(chuàng)意都是由恩格爾巴特在斯坦福研究所成立的擴(kuò)展研究中心于20世紀(jì)60年代首創(chuàng)的。然而，恩格爾巴特從未得到過(guò)支持來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)他構(gòu)想中更主要的部分，甚至在幾十年后他終于功成名就時(shí)也是如此。2008年，斯坦福大學(xué)舉辦了一場(chǎng)為期兩天的專題報(bào)告會(huì)向恩格爾巴特致敬，他們將報(bào)告會(huì)命名為“未竟的革命”。

對(duì)恩格爾巴特而言，計(jì)算機(jī)、界面和網(wǎng)絡(luò)都是途徑，用以實(shí)現(xiàn)一個(gè)更重要的目的——提升人類智能，從而幫助我們?cè)谧约簞?chuàng)造的世界中生存下去。在他1962年一篇題為《提升人類智能》的論文中，恩格爾巴特列出了提高他所說(shuō)的“集體智商”的最終結(jié)果，其中包括“更快的理解力……更好的解決方案，以及為那些以前看似無(wú)解的問(wèn)題找到解決辦法的可能性”。如果你想了解當(dāng)今信息技術(shù)的起源和未來(lái)走向，這篇論文仍然值得一讀。

恩格爾巴特想要通過(guò)電子計(jì)算機(jī)來(lái)增強(qiáng)人類能力的構(gòu)想誕生于1945年，那時(shí)他剛閱讀了《誠(chéng)如所思》一文。這是當(dāng)時(shí)美國(guó)的發(fā)明家和戰(zhàn)時(shí)科研主管范內(nèi)瓦·布什發(fā)表在《大西洋月刊》上的一篇文章。布什在文中寫(xiě)道：“人類經(jīng)驗(yàn)的總和正在以驚人的速度增長(zhǎng)，而我們用于穿越隨之而來(lái)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)迷宮以尋找當(dāng)下重要之物的方法卻與過(guò)去建造橫帆船時(shí)的方法別無(wú)二致?！?/p>

這些話啟發(fā)了恩格爾巴特。這位當(dāng)時(shí)還很年輕的電氣工程師提出了如下構(gòu)想：人們可以通過(guò)屏幕和計(jì)算機(jī)來(lái)協(xié)作解決問(wèn)題。此后他將余生都獻(xiàn)給了這一構(gòu)想，盡管學(xué)術(shù)界和計(jì)算機(jī)行業(yè)的業(yè)內(nèi)人士反復(fù)告誡他說(shuō)，他那些要將計(jì)算機(jī)用于除科學(xué)計(jì)算或商業(yè)數(shù)據(jù)處理外的任何領(lǐng)域的構(gòu)想都是“瘋狂的”“科幻小說(shuō)般的”念頭。

恩格爾巴特從一開(kāi)始就知道，只有當(dāng)屏幕、輸入設(shè)備、硬件和軟件成為包括認(rèn)知變化、社會(huì)變化以及體制變化的系統(tǒng)的一部分時(shí)，才能促成人們實(shí)現(xiàn)必要的協(xié)作，找到問(wèn)題的解決方案。他整個(gè)構(gòu)想的關(guān)鍵是要推行能讓人們更高效地共同工作的新方式，但他發(fā)現(xiàn)這比轉(zhuǎn)變?nèi)藱C(jī)交互方式還要難。

在他生命和職業(yè)生涯的大部分時(shí)間里，恩格爾巴特都在致力于讓人們認(rèn)真考慮他的構(gòu)想，而鼠標(biāo)是他的所有構(gòu)想中必不可少卻又比較初級(jí)的一部分。他只在十年時(shí)間里得到過(guò)大力支持。1963年，美國(guó)國(guó)防部為恩格爾巴特提供了必要的資金來(lái)組建一支團(tuán)隊(duì)，創(chuàng)造未來(lái)，并通過(guò)后來(lái)被稱為“演示之母”的一次演示給世界上每一位計(jì)算機(jī)設(shè)計(jì)師留下了深刻印象。

1983年，我首次與恩格爾巴特見(jiàn)面是在他位于庫(kù)比蒂諾市一棟小樓內(nèi)的辦公室里。這棟樓完全處于蘋(píng)果公司園區(qū)的包圍之中。由于國(guó)防部撤回了資金，斯坦福研究所也終止了對(duì)擴(kuò)展研究中心的支持。之后，一家如今已經(jīng)不復(fù)存在的公司——泰姆謝爾收購(gòu)了恩格爾巴特的實(shí)驗(yàn)室，并雇用了他。

恩格爾巴特沮喪地發(fā)現(xiàn)，盡管個(gè)人計(jì)算機(jī)一直在快速演變，但他的計(jì)劃中的其余組成部分卻并非如此。當(dāng)時(shí)，個(gè)人計(jì)算機(jī)并未像那時(shí)的大型計(jì)算機(jī)終端那樣相互聯(lián)網(wǎng)，而且也沒(méi)有鼠標(biāo)或點(diǎn)擊界面。

在我們的第一次交談中，恩格爾巴特告訴我——我確信他一定也曾告訴過(guò)很多其他人——在一個(gè)以“使用語(yǔ)言、人工制品和方法的人類”為中心的系統(tǒng)中，計(jì)算機(jī)和鼠標(biāo)僅僅是“人工制品”。

在20世紀(jì)80年代末，恩格爾巴特自己出資成立了引導(dǎo)研究所，以便試驗(yàn)其關(guān)于更高效工作的構(gòu)想，并讓該構(gòu)想也能像他的人工制品（編注：指鼠標(biāo)）那樣為人們所接受。他創(chuàng)造出了一些方法，用于分析人們?nèi)绾卧谝粋€(gè)組織內(nèi)行動(dòng)，還開(kāi)發(fā)出了他聲稱將提高“集體智商”的具體技術(shù)。以被他稱為“CODIAK”的概念框架為開(kāi)端，恩格爾巴特進(jìn)行了一系列關(guān)于那些方法的詳盡展示?！凹w智商用于衡量一群人同時(shí)開(kāi)發(fā)、整合并應(yīng)用其知識(shí)來(lái)完成任務(wù)的有效程度?！倍鞲駹柊吞貜?qiáng)調(diào)道。

引導(dǎo)研究所的辦公場(chǎng)地由鼠標(biāo)制造商羅技公司提供，但該研究所從未將引導(dǎo)、集體智商或CODIAK概念出售給任何出資者、大公司或政府部門(mén)。恩格爾巴特及其女兒克里斯蒂娜擔(dān)任該研究所的主要工作人員。

恩格爾巴特沒(méi)能成功地將其構(gòu)想中比較抽象的部分傳播出去，這歸因于幾個(gè)因素。恩格爾巴特從本質(zhì)上講是一個(gè)工程師，而工程師那烏托邦式的解決方案并非總能解釋人類社會(huì)制度的復(fù)雜性。他只在實(shí)驗(yàn)室被關(guān)閉前增添了一位社會(huì)科學(xué)家。

此外，對(duì)于20世紀(jì)80年代的企業(yè)管理者們而言，恩格爾巴特關(guān)于技術(shù)與組織行為共同飛躍發(fā)展的論點(diǎn)聽(tīng)起來(lái)很瘋狂，就和利用機(jī)器提升人類智能的論點(diǎn)在20世紀(jì)60年代初的遭遇一樣。終于，硅谷公司的運(yùn)作方式在最近幾十年發(fā)生了劇烈變化，不過(guò)實(shí)現(xiàn)方式并不是老牌公司經(jīng)歷恩格爾巴特所想象的那種內(nèi)部變革，而是老牌公司被激進(jìn)的初創(chuàng)公司所取代。

2005年左右，我再次和恩格爾巴特交談時(shí)，他感嘆道，人們口袋中隨身攜帶的設(shè)備的計(jì)算能力比20世紀(jì)60年代他整個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)室的計(jì)算能力要強(qiáng)上數(shù)百萬(wàn)倍，但是他構(gòu)想的系統(tǒng)中比較抽象的部分依然沒(méi)有發(fā)生如此驚人的演變。

恩格爾巴特為提升世界認(rèn)知能力作出了貢獻(xiàn)。和蒂姆·伯納斯·李一樣，他從未想過(guò)去占有這些成果。他創(chuàng)造數(shù)字媒體是為了實(shí)現(xiàn)崇高的使命，但有如此多的人在采用、開(kāi)發(fā)他曾協(xié)助創(chuàng)造的數(shù)字媒體，并從中獲利，卻沒(méi)能繼續(xù)這一使命，這令他最終感到失望。

1.obituary [??b?t?u?ri] n. 訃告

2.wistfully [?w?stf（?）li] adv. 悶悶不樂(lè)地，愁眉苦臉地

3.symposium [s?m?p??zi?m] n. 專題報(bào)告會(huì)

4.collective IQ：集體智商

5.augment [??ɡ?ment] vt. 加強(qiáng)；提高

6.Vannevar Bush：范內(nèi)瓦·布什（1890～1974），美國(guó)著名的科學(xué)家和教育家，被譽(yù)為“信息時(shí)代的教父”。

7.summation [s??me??（?）n] n. [數(shù)]和

8.prodigious [pr??d?d??s] adj. 驚人的；異常的

9.thread through：通過(guò)，使穿透

10.maze [me?z] n. 迷宮，迷網(wǎng)

11.square-rigged [?skwe?（r）?r?ɡd] adj. [海事] （帆船）橫帆式的

12.lynchpin [?l?nt?p?n] n. 關(guān)鍵

13.wherewithal [?we?（r）w?e???l] n. 必要的資金（或資源、設(shè)備、手段等）

14.Cupertino：庫(kù)比蒂諾，一個(gè)位于美國(guó)加州舊金山灣區(qū)南部的城市，蘋(píng)果全球總公司的所在地

15.point-and-click [?p??nt?nd?kl?k] adj. [計(jì)] （界面）可點(diǎn)擊的

16.bootstrap [?bu?tstr?p] n. [計(jì)] 引導(dǎo)，自展（啟動(dòng)程序的系統(tǒng)），即用一個(gè)很小的程序?qū)⒛硞€(gè)特定的程序（通常指操作系統(tǒng)）載入計(jì)算機(jī)中。

17.CODIAK：恩格爾巴特自創(chuàng)的縮寫(xiě)，即“知識(shí)的同時(shí)開(kāi)發(fā)、融合與應(yīng)用”（Concurrent Development， Integration and Application of Knowledge）。

18.concurrently [k?n?k?r?ntli] adv. 同時(shí)地，一起

19.pitch [p?t?] n. 宣傳論點(diǎn)

20.Tim Berners-Lee：蒂姆·伯納斯·李（1955～），萬(wàn)維網(wǎng)的發(fā)明者，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)之父