Alan Kay Response

The Dynabook seemed ahead of its time. It was like a blueprint for personal computer in that it had many things that are in the standard in PCs today. It had filing, editing, memory storage, different fonts, a Microsoft Paint type program, a music program with similarities to GarageBand, and animation programs. It makes me wonder what would have happened if it had been built and released back then. Would technology be more advanced today than it is now? Maybe with the how fast technology is moving today. New technology may been discovered faster. Although we didn't get the Dynabook, at least we got the Xerox because of it. It kind of reminds me of the many ideas that I have had that I end up throwing out or reformatting into something else because I don't have the means to make it at the current time or otherwise. But then this allows for ideas to grow and become better and maybe in a similar way PCs are better because they came later and had more time to work things out.

I also found it interesting in the reading that he got the idea for flat screen display found a piece of glass as it was reflecting colors from light. It reminds me of how many ideas have started because of something simple. Like how basketball was invented by a guy who wanted to make a new game for his students to enjoy. Speaking of, I also thought it was interesting that kids were used to test some of their programs. It kind of seems like a fluxus idea in that they are taking kids who may have little or no experience at all with computers and allowing them to interact with them.