The Sailor Boy, as he calls himself, celebrated his 80th birthday with his daughters, grandchildren and his friends last Saturday.
To live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy. [Essence of First Things First] If there is one person that has done it all, then it is Doug Engelbart.
He told the story again last Saturday at age 25, after he had proposed to his future wife he formulated a principle for his professional life:
Let me design a professional goal which will maximize the contribution my career can have to mankind!
Weeks later his lifetime goal emerged:
As much as possible, to boost mankind's collective capability for coping with complex, urgent problems.
This goal was his guiding light throughout his career, which enabled him to see things beyond the horizon, to see capabilities that are beyond the reach for you.
Videos from Doug's famous demo from 1968 were shown at the party and details revealed that I haven't heard before.
There was no Ethernet back in the 60s, so they created a wireless link to send the data and video streams from the Palo Alto offices to the conference in San Francisco with a couple of trucks on Skyline as repeaters creating as far as I know the first mobile network. Absolutely amazing.
Happy Birthday Sailor Boy. We are so glad to have you in our midst and don't feel like a failure [You reiterated that on Saturday. Just because not everything that you envisioned has come through yet] there are people like Eugene from Blue Oxen or the group at Processing Engelbart that are picking up the pieces and keeping your dream alive.
You will forever be our inspiration on the way to a world that works for all of us.
As the Future Salon's little part to further carry your ideas and work out to the world, finally the video of your Future Salon presentation is available at the Internet Archive. [Fast forward if you can to 13:45 or so, this is where Doug's talk starts.]
Thank you Doug for all that you have done for us.
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