1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Ted Nelson

Ted Nelson Quotes

Theodor Holm Nelson is an American pioneer of information technology, philosopher and sociologist. He coined the terms hypertext and hypermedia in 1963 and published them in 1965. Nelson coined the terms transclusion, virtuality, and intertwingularity , and teledildonics. According to a 1997 Forbes profile, Nelson "sees himself as a literary romantic, like a Cyrano de Bergerac, or 'the Orson Welles of software.'"



Wikipedia  

✵ 17. June 1937
Ted Nelson photo
Ted Nelson: 17   quotes 0   likes

Famous Ted Nelson Quotes

“I have long been alarmed by people’s sheeplike acceptance of the term ‘computer technology’ — it sounds so objective and inexorable — when most computer technology is really a bunch of ideas turned into conventions and packages.”

Ted Nelson

Quoted in In Venting, a Computer Visionary Educates http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/business/11stream.html?_r=1 by John Markoff, published January 10, 2009 in the New York Times, page BU4 of the New York edition.

“HOW TO LEARN ANYTHINGAs far as I can tell these are the techniques used by bright people who want to learn something other than by taking courses in it. […]1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN. But you can't know this exactly, because you don't know exactly how any field is structured until you know all about it.2. READ EVERYTHING YOU CAN ON IT, especially what you enjoy, since that way you can read more of it and faster.3. GRAB FOR INSIGHTS. Regardless of points others are trying to make, when you recognize an insight that has meaning for you, make it your own […] Its importance is not how central it is, but how clear and interesting and memorable to you. REMEMBER IT. Then go for another.4. TIE INSIGHTS TOGETHER. Soon you will have your own string of insights in a field. […]5. CONCENTRATE ON MAGAZINES, NOT BOOKS. Magazines have far more insights per inch of text, and can be read much faster. But when a book really speaks to you, lavish attention on it.6. FIND YOUR OWN SPECIAL TOPICS, AND PURSUE THEM.7. GO TO CONVENTIONS. For some reason, conventions are a splendid concentrated way to learn things; talking to people helps. […]8. "FIND YOUR MAN." Somewhere in the world is someone who will answer your questions extraordinarily well. If you find him, dog him. […]9. KEEP IMPROVING YOUR QUESTIONS. Probably in your head there are questions that don't seem to line up with what your hearing. Don't assume that you don't understand; keep adjusting the questions till you get an answer that relates to what you wanted.10. YOUR FIELD IS BOUNDED WHERE YOU WANT IT TO BE. Just because others group and stereotype things in conventional ways does not mean they are necessarily right. Intellectual subjects are connected every which way; your field is what you think it is. […]”

Ted Nelson

Dream Machines
Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974, rev. 1987)

“Everybody has only a 24-hour day. Most people, if they increase consumption of one medium (like magazines or books) will cut down on another (like TV). This drastically reduces the sort of growth some people have been expecting.”

Ted Nelson

Dream Machines
Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974, rev. 1987)

“You can and must understand computers now!”

Ted Nelson

Slogan. (The insistence that ordinary people need to understand computers is remarkable for its era: the first personal computers were not available until 1975.)
Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974, rev. 1987)

“After all, dumbing down Xanadu sure worked well for Tim Berners-Lee!”

Ted Nelson

Article on Nelson's website, "Indirect Documents at Last!" http://www.hyperland.com/trollout.txt (2005)

“Most people are fools, most authority is malignant, God does not exist, and everything is wrong.”

Ted Nelson

quoted by Gary Wolf in "The Curse of Xanadu" http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.06/xanadu_pr.html in Wired (6/1995)

Ted Nelson Quotes

“If computers are the wave of the future, displays are the surfboards.”

Ted Nelson

Dream Machines, p 22.
Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974, rev. 1987)

Future

“In order for something to Catch On, it has to be standardized. Unfortunately, there is motivation for different companies to make their own little changes in order to restrict users to their own products. The best example of how to avoid this: Philips patented its audio cartridge [i. e. the standard audio "cassette"] to the teeth, but then granted everyone free use of the patent provided they adhered to the exact standard. The result has been the system's spectacular success, and Philips, rather than dominating a small market, has a share of a far larger market, and hence makes more money. That's a virtue-rewarded kind of story.”

Ted Nelson

Dream Machines
Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974, rev. 1987)

Money , Motivation , Change , Success

“Everything is deeply intertwingled.”

Ted Nelson

Computer Lib p. 42 / Dream Machines p.45
Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974, rev. 1987)

“A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within 10 seconds.”

Ted Nelson

Ted Nelson motto http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=6681

Understanding

“[Of the web] It's massively successful. It is trivially simple. Massively successful like karaoke - anybody can do it.”

Ted Nelson

BBC News Interview, "Visionary lays into the web" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1581891.stm (2001)

Success

“It is imperative for many reasons that the appalling gap between public and computer insider be closed. As the saying goes, war is too important to be left to the generals. Guardianship of the computer can no longer be left to a priesthood. I see this as just one example of the creeping evil of Professionalism, the control of aspects of society by cliques of insiders. There may be some chance, though, that Professionalism can be turned around. Doctors, for example, are being told that they no longer own people’s bodies. And this book may suggest to some computer professionals that their position should not be as sacrosanct as they have thought, either.”

Ted Nelson

Computer Lib
Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974, rev. 1987)

War , People , Books , Evil

“We should not impose regularity where it does not exist.”

Ted Nelson

Ted Nelson on Zigzag data structures http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WEj9vqVvHPc#t=188s (6 September, 2008

“I see Professionalism as a spreading disease of the present-day world, a sort of poly-oligarchy by which various groups (subway conductors, social workers, bricklayers) can bring things to a halt if their particular demands are not met. (Meanwhile, the irrelevance of each profession increases, in proportion to its increasing rigidity.) Such lucky groups demand more in each go-round - but meantime, the number who are permanently unemployed grows and grows.”

Ted Nelson

Computer Lib
Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974, rev. 1987)

World , Disease

“The World Wide Web was precisely what we were trying to PREVENT— ever-breaking links, links going outward only, quotes you can't follow to their origins, no version management, no rights management.”

Ted Nelson

Ted Nelson's Home Page http://xanadu.com.au/ted/XU/XuPageKeio.html (November 17, 1998)

World , Quotes

“I hope, that in our archives and historical filings of the future, we do not allow the techie traditions of hierarchy and false regularity to be superimposed to the teeming, fantastic disorderlyness of human life.”

Ted Nelson

http://www.raphkoster.com/2011/10/13/gdco2011-its-all-games-now/

Life , Hope , Future , Falseness

Similar authors

Herbert A. Simon photo
Herbert A. Simon 58
American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and p…
Peter F. Drucker photo
Peter F. Drucker 180
American business consultant
Max Weber photo
Max Weber 41
German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist
Theodor W. Adorno photo
Theodor W. Adorno 90
German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for …
Friedrich Hayek photo
Friedrich Hayek 79
Austrian and British economist and Nobel Prize for Economic…
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk photo
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk 9
First Czechoslovak president
Guillaume Apollinaire photo
Guillaume Apollinaire 28
French poet
Ayn Rand photo
Ayn Rand 322
Russian-American novelist and philosopher
Martin Heidegger photo
Martin Heidegger 69
German philosopher
Paulo Freire photo
Paulo Freire 115
educator and philosopher