Skip to content
Hallway
0:00 / 0:00

#douglasengelbart#mouse#hypertext

The Mother of All Demos, presented by Douglas Engelbart (1968)

Marcel

1.3K subscribers • 1 video on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 9 people: 8 on Hacker News and 1 in engineering communities.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2013 to 2026.
  • Presented by Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

1.1M views14 years ago9 recommendations

History and cultureSoftware designHistory of computingPeople who shaped computingSoftware architecture

Douglas Engelbart demonstrates experimental computer technologies in 1968, introducing the mouse, hypertext, video conferencing, and collaborative editing.

"The Mother of All Demos is a name given retrospectively to Douglas Engelbart's December 9, 1968, demonstration of experimental computer technologies that are now commonplace. The live demonstration featured the introduction of the computer mouse, video conferencing, teleconferencing, hypertext, word processing, hypermedia, object addressing and dynamic file linking, bootstrapping, and a collaborative real-time editor."

Why it's here

9 people recommend this

What people say. Widely recommended as one of the most important and visionary demonstrations in the history of computing.

estreeperon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Douglas C. Engelbart, Inventor of the Computer Mouse, Dies at 88”

…how incredible it is to be involved in a science which is still so much in its infancy that seminal figures in its development are still alive and well. Let us not forget their contributions, and most importantly, not overlook the concepts that, if employed today, can advance us far beyond where we are now. Douglas Engelbart's Mother of All Demos: link to this video…
View on Hacker News

gjvcon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Web vs. native: let’s concede defeat”

those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. watching the mother of all demos once a year is a sobering reminder of that. link to this video some better-than-most discussion here: link
View on Hacker News

otrason Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: What are some old talks (10+ y) that are still relevant to watch today?”

The Mother Of All Demos is an absolute classic: link to this video link I also very much enjoy Feynman’s talks. Here’s one on imagining physics: link For computer science in particular, I highly recommend the first lecture in the SICP series, especially on the naming of so called “computer science”: link
View on Hacker News

kbumsikon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Bill English has died”

I was so surprised when I watched "The Mother of All Demos" from 50+ years ago (1968) and saw what they predicted and actually implemented. They demonstrated what's happening in 2020, video conferencing, real time collaborative word processing, and etc. Truly amazing. 1 link to this video 2 link
View on Hacker News

mftbon Hacker News • Recommends

On “50th Anniversary of the Mother of All Demos (2018)”

Always glad to see this getting attention, I really enjoy computing history. There's a link to a video in the article, but it's part three of ten. Recently I came across this0. It's pretty much the whole thing in one video. It's long but it's well worth the watch. I was born in '68, so I can't remember the 60s, but I can remember the 70s and it's easy for me to understand why people felt Engelbart was, "Dealing lightning with both hands" at the Mother of All Demos. 0 link to this video
View on Hacker News

m_muelleron Hacker News • Recommends

On “Introduction to Microsoft Excel (1992) [video]”

I know it’s not spreadsheets and even more distant, but I think it’s worth it for you to check 1 to see the origin of much of HID to this date. Best in mind that all of what you see there was done by 12 people from scratch (no OS, not even assembled hardware) in roughly 2 years until 1968. 1 link to this video
View on Hacker News

memseton Hacker News • Recommends

On “1968-12-09 the mother of all demos”

I'm not able to see this link, but I'm assuming it is this: link to this video Google "The Mother of All Demos" One fascinating thing to me is that he is explaining things with clarity that we take for granted - for example, the mouse - for the first time. He explains the mouse here: link to this video "The tracking spot cursor moves in conjunction with the mouse. As it moves up and down and sideways so does the tracking spot."
View on Hacker News

hans-lon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ratty – A terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics”

Sometimes I really feel we're chasing UX that were solved in the Mother of all Demos (in 1968). For those who haven't watched it: link to this video
View on Hacker News

u/deadowlin r/compsci • Recommends

The Mother of All Demos
1View on Reddit

u/DonaldPShimodain r/compsci • Mentions

On “What was the most revolutionary idea in computer science?”

Other people have written about my choices for *most* revolutionary (Shannon coding), but here's another very revolutionary idea: That computers should present their information graphically. Specifically, watch Doug Engelbart's "Mother of All Demos", wherein practically all crucial aspects of the modern graphical interface were revealed to the public — in 1968. This is often regarded as the single most incredible demonstration of what computers might be able to do in the future (at the time it was presented). Some highlights: - presented the mouse - highlighted text - ~~resized windows~~ had a window system - manipulated text onscreen via WYSIWYG editing (unheard of) - simultaneous text…
73View on Reddit

u/MaybeTheDoctorin r/compsci • Mentions

On “What are the greatest breakthroughs in Computer Science?”

The mother of all demos: [video
22View on Reddit

u/tao_of_coffeein r/ProgrammingLanguages • Mentions

On “Dr. Dobb's Journal”

There's a lot of good stuff out there that is pretty much forgotten/unknown. I think most people think that the "interesting stuff" has only been done recently. Then they stumble across things like META II, and "The Mother of all Demos", and are blown away.
13View on Reddit

christophon Hacker News • Mentions

On “AngularJS is amazing, and hard as hell”

For me, even though it's PHP, ProcessWire consistently models data in a human way. I've put the out-the-box backend CMS in front of people that interact with computers very little and they instantly "get it". All data is simply a node in a hierarchy, and is easily movable and editable. I don't understand why more frameworks don't copy this basic structure. If you watch "The mother of all demos"1 the structure is almost visually 95% the same. I look at Angular and it's looks complicated - the article is about how complicated it is. Surely we should be striving for tools the everyday man can pick up and play with? 1 - link to this video
View on Hacker News

JTxton Hacker News • Mentions

On “A version-controlled object database with real-time collaborative editing”

The collaboration video link especially, reminded me of The Mother of All Demos link to this video We're still trying to get this out of the genetic soup stage. CoreObject looks like a great stab at it with a great name!
View on Hacker News

apion Hacker News • Mentions

On “Peter Thiel Says Computers Haven’t Made Our Lives Significantly Better”

Windows 3.1 to Windows 8 is incremental. This, however, was not: link to this video It's hard to pin down, but I'd define a fundamental advance as one that either (a) multiplies the number of addressable problems, or (b) constitutes a sudden and sizable nonlinear jump in capability over a very short period of time. It does often result from the combination of existing things, but it's always a discontinuity. A fundamental innovation is when 1 + 1 + 1 = 1000, not 3. It's a big monumental win that unlocks whole sections of the "technology tree" that were not reachable at all before. An example of (a) would be the final integration of all the components necessary for a CPU onto a single die. An example of…
View on Hacker News

uxcnon Hacker News • Mentions

On “A Constructive Look at TempleOS”

…(successful) efforts to build a filesystem that fully supports indexing content, but they're generally implicit indexes. Explicit indexing via file content might be interesting. I'm not sure what the real justification for running everything in Ring-0 is. I can't think of many reasons for anything more than minimal privileges to be a benefit. 1 link to this video 2 link…
View on Hacker News