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Ted Nelson in Herzog's "Lo and Behold"

TheTedNelson

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YouTube
  • Recommended by 3 people: 3 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Ted Nelson, creator of Project Xanadu
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

41K views9 years ago3 recommendations

History and cultureSoftware designHistory of computingPeople who shaped computing

Ted Nelson explains his original vision for hypertext, interconnected documents, and two-way links in an interview with filmmaker Werner Herzog.

Here is Ted on the big screen for the first time-- interviewed by the great film-maker Werner Herzog for his 2016 movie about the Internet and its consequences. The interview is brilliantly edited to present a seamless train of thought selected from Ted's sweeping complex of ideas. Amazingly, Herzog concludes that Ted is the only sane person in the computer field. Put on Youtube by permission of Werner Herzog.

Why it's here

3 people recommend this, 1 disputes it

What people say. Recommended for its poetic and insightful look into Ted Nelson's alternative vision for the World Wide Web.

sarvindon Hacker News • Recommends

On “And 'Lo!': How the internet was born”

I suspect this comment is aimed at segments like this one with Ted Nelson of Hypertext fame: link to this video On first viewing, I too felt it was incomprehensible wordsoup in some sense - but upon learning more about Nelson and the history and context around which his ideas were developed, I've grown to find this interview almost magical.

azeirahon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Show HN: DeepUI Programming Studio – A different approach to programming”

There's someone who definitely spent a lot of time on this, definitely check out Ted Nelson's ZigZag structure: link It is exactly that, an attempt to structure data in a similar way that our thoughts are formed. I believe it was this video where he shortly explained that concept; link to this video Although it might be a different video since Ted Nelson is all over the place with his documents and videos.

mixedbiton Hacker News • Recommends

On “Xanadu”

Here is an interview in which Ted Nelson explains his vision to Werner Herzog: link to this video The interview is included in 'Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World' documentary. The whole documentary is rather critical of the impact the Internet revolution had on our society, but Herzog seemed to really admire Ted Nelson's alternative vision for the global network.

fossuseron Hacker News • Disputes

On “Werner Herzog: ‘Film-making is always some sort of risk-taking’”

…here after the next couple. Too much “the media doesn’t want us to talk about this” and “the Clintons are a globalist conspiracy against the people”. If you have real arguments then make them. Don’t just confidently state things as fact without backing them up. Thankfully when Sam Harris was on he at least pushed back on some of the bullshit. 0: link to this video…

wallfloweron Hacker News • Mentions

On “Quotebacks – Quote the Web”

…_1963_ claimed in Werner Herzog’s documentary “Lo and Behold” that his original idea for “copy and paste” would always link back to the original. This article below based on the Herzog interview has more context but not the exact _quote_ (context pun intended) that I remember from the documentary. Full interview of Ted Nelson from “Lo and Behold”: link to this video > Nelson, who was featured in Werner Herzog’s latest film, Lo and Behold, believes that instead of the existing formats we use online, where text often mirrors the constraints of paper, we should have a system of two-way links that would allow readers to see the context of any quotation... > There are a few offline examples, such as the Tal…

8bitsruleon Hacker News • Mentions

On “OpenXanadu”

"Amazingly, Herzog concludes that Ted is the only sane person in the computer field." [video ] At the time Ted conceived his visionary ideas, the magazines were full of pictures of guys in suits standing in front of secretaries typing into screenless hardware, and business machines with racks of IBM tape-reels. There was little non-corporate networking (except for the beginnings of PLATO), and only dreamers talked of making all information available to everyone. Wikipedia is a kludge by comparison.