Augmentation
“The thing that amazed me–even humbled me–about the digital computer when I first encountered it over fifty years ago–was that, in the computer, I saw that we have a tool that does not just move earth or bend steel, but we have a tool that actually can manipulate symbols and, even more importantly, portray symbols in new ways, so that we can interact with them and learn. ¶ We have a tool that radically extends our capabilities in the very area that makes us most human, and most powerful. There is a native American myth about the coyote, a native dog of the American prairies–how the coyote incurred the wrath of the gods by bringing fire down from heaven for the use of mankind, making man more powerful than the gods ever intended. ¶ My sense is that computer science has brought us a gift of even greater power, the ability to amplify and extend our ability to manipulate symbols.... ¶ We need to become better at being humans. Learning to use symbols and knowledge in new ways, across groups, across cultures, is a powerful, valuable, and very human goal. ¶ And it is also one that is obtainable, if we only begin to open our minds to full, complete use of computers to augment our most human of capabilities.”