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Ted Nelson Possiplex book launch at The Tech MuseumThe Tech MuseumWednesday, October 6, 2010 at 6:00 PM (PDT)San Jose, CA |
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Event Details
Join
Ted Nelson at The Tech Museum on October 6 to celebrate the publication of Ted
Nelson's long-threatened autobiography.
"POSSIPLEX: Movies, Intellect, Creative Control,
My Computer Life and the Fight
for Civilization".
LOCATION:
The Tech Museum
201 South Market St. San Jose CA
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 6:00 p.m.
PROGRAM:
6:00
pm: Doors open. Schmoozing and light refreshments.
6:40 pm: Introduction by Valerie Landau
6:50
pm: Ted reads from the book.
7:30 pm: Book autographing and
refreshments.
8:00 pm: Q&A.;
8:30 pm: For those with time and inclination, Ted will stay for further discussion and socializing.
ABOUT
THIS BOOK:
"It is a rip roaring read." -- Wendy
Hall, most recent president of the ACM
"It is
compelling reading." Maurice G. Eldridge, vice president,
Swarthmore College
"I read it in one non-stop surge
because I couldn't put it down. Like its author, it's fascinating,
brilliant, and crazy. ... The book will be a winner. And Xanadu will
come." -- James Burke, author/presenter of "Connections"
and "The Day the Universe Changed"
"I
love the way it's formatted and the tasty anecdotes and memory
flashes." -- Rudy Rucker, author of The Ware Tetralogy
"This
is a wonderful roundup of [Nelson's] life and work - it pulls
together and extends the innovative ideas [Nelson has] been
developing over the decades. ... Brilliant." -- William Dutton,
Director, Oxford Internet Institute
"Ted Nelson
needs to set the record straight because the record is absurdly bent.
This is not the 21st Century I signed up for. ... The future of
computing has been short-changed by the short-sighted. This is the
story of the man who tried to prevent it. ... The "eppur si
muove"* of the Internet Era.* ... This is an uncommonly rare
autobiography: as much about the future as the past. If you feel like
someone pulled the Web over your eyes -- read this book! ... A
commendable story and a great read -- I laughed aloud at many points
(to the consternation of my fellow passengers)." -- Daniel de
Segovia Gross *Eppur si muove, and yet it turns -- Galileo's
(apocryphal) remark after being forced to renounce heliocentrism by
the Inquisition.
"This is [Nelson's] story, warts
and all. It explains what he foresaw, what he wanted to do, what
mistakes he made, and what mistakes he didn't make. He sets the
record straight, saying what he did when and what he didn't do when.
... He writes about not suffering fools gladly. He recounts how his
anger led him to burn bridges he might have crossed, so that he
missed out on many potential opportunities. ... The book is a
fascinating read, like a wonderful novel that one cannot put down,
but it is fact, not fiction!" --Gilbert Harman, Department of
Philosophy, Princeton University
Ted will also be at The Internet Archive
Friday,
October 8, at 6:00 pm
300 Funston Ave. San Francisco, CA 94118
Click here to register for the event at Internet Archive.
ABOUT TED
NELSON:
"A truly first-class mind ... one of
the dozen or so most brilliant people I've met in a lifetime of
hanging out with geniuses and the highly gifted" Eric Raymond,
Open Software Initiative
"Tesla:Electricity =
Nelson:Digital. ... All of the web is in essence a pale shadow of
just one of Ted Nelson's dreams. Now do I have your attention?..."
-- Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus
"Nelson is a
lovable genius and a wonderful writer. ... He has been a man of the
hour mistaken for a man ahead of his time. ... For over 50 years
Nelson has been making brilliant discoveries, largely unknown except
to a few. Ted Nelson is increasingly recognized as a creative genius,
with truly original important ideas ... He has been a mad genius;
"mad" meaning angry rather than insane." --Gilbert
Harman, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University
"The
word "visionary" gets thrown around quite a bit when one
talks about computers and the Internet: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff
Bezos ... all visionaries. And then you read [Computer Lib], which
originally appeared in the 1970s, based on ideas Nelson developed in
the 1960s, and you discover what visionary really means." --
John Harris Stevenson ("tranquileye"), Ottawa, on
Amazon
"Ted Nelson is the Bucky Fuller of
software." -- Bill Duvall, PARC veteran and veteran of the
Engelbart group
"Ted Nelson is the Thomas Paine of
the Information Revolution." -- Stewart Brand, creator of the
Whole Earth Catalog
"A thoughtful, brilliant
rebel." -- Tom Bradley
"About three weeks
ago... I landed on some work by Mr. Nelson. I was astounded by the
brilliance of his work. ... In some of Mr. Nelson’s ideas, I see a
far better world than the one I live in today." -- Kenneth
Stein
"Ted Nelson is the One True Prophet,
unencumbered, riding a unicycle with a clipboard in one hand, leading
us to the biggest of Big Tents. There's still time, brother!"
--Rudy Rucker, author of The Ware Tetralogy.
"I
can’t help but think that his conceptions for organizing
information... has much to do with ... his need to attempt to gain
some measure of control of his hyperawareness." -- Mark
Federman
"Nelson had a singular, coherent vision,
wherein the method used to link and interconnect digital information
was a natural extension of the way that digital information was
stored. His attempts to realize this vision have been quixotic. His
defense of his point of view has been impassioned, righteous and
aggressive. In short, the delivery of the ideas was not optimized for
the marketplace. But its failure in the marketplace doesn't make the
idea any less elegant, nor any less right. ... Xanadu would offer
systemic, structural protections against the misuse of intellectual
property; against the loss of knowledge; and against certain
"Orwellian" manipulations of historical data." --
Daniel de Segovia Gross
"Nelson's work is
monumental, giving hope and confidence to a generation of developers
and entrepreneurs who made a huge difference." -- Dave
Winer
ABOUT 'COMPUTER LIB' (Nelson's 1974 book,
often called a "classic"):
"Computer Lib literally
changed my life, made me feel like I was not crazy to be more
interested in computers for what they could do with text and
documents than record keeping, and set me in the direction my
professional life followed." -- Mitch Kapor, founder of
Lotus
"Ted Nelson has given us a vision. The
vision, and this book itself describe a paradox: quaint and
futuristic at the same time. ... it's easy to pick up and read at any
point. Bring it back in print so more can enjoy it! This author
coined the term "hypertext", and describes a universe
slightly parallel to ours, where the WorldWideWeb is known as Xanadu,
where electronic documents are linked and not embedded; where authors
could receive monetary credit for citations or purchases. ... I still
fondle it often. It's one of those books that get stolen from your
bookshelf, or you leave on the table for months. I find the author
can explain computer science and computer graphics in simple, fun
terms. This book is a classic computer book, and it explains the
wonder and the pleasure that some people get from computers in a
wildly creative way. It's a love story, it's a "punk hacker"
story, it's a tragedy. ... Not everyone will agree with Ted Nelson,
but I think this is a great book." -- "A Customer" at
Amazon
-- Theodor Holm Nelson PhD Founder of computer
hypertext, 1960 Fifty years fighting for a better world of rich
parallel documents, visibly connected. . Visiting Professor of
Electronics and Computer Science University of Southampton, UK.
Ted will also be at The Internet Archive
Friday,
October 8, at 6:00 pm
300 Funston Ave. San Francisco, CA 94118
Click here to register for the event at Internet Archive.
When & Where
The Tech Museum
New Venture Hall
201 South Market Street
San Jose,
CA 95113
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 6:00 PM (PDT)
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Organizer
The Tech Museum
About The Tech Museum
The mission of The Tech Museum is to engage people of all ages and backgrounds in science and technology
experiences that educate, inform, provoke thought and inspire action. The
Tech Museum does this through content and programs featuring "The Spirit of
Silicon Valley" inspiring people, inventions and mind-set that continues to
make this region the leading source of science and technology innovation.
http://www.thetech.org