Tools for thought

C°F Breakfast session

Oct 2025

what did you think
it was for?

when you first used a computer

AI @

why this session?

The goal of expanding minds with the help of technology

is a personal motivation to design and develop

Knowing where we come from informs where we're going

tool for thought

what do we mean by a

?

"[a means of] increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, to gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems."

Douglas Engelbart

Augmenting Human Intellect:
A Conceptual Framework (1962)

"a truly new medium [where] the very use of it would actually change the thought patterns of an entire civilization. "

Alan Kay

User Interface: A Personal View (1989)

a renaissance?

Maggie Appleton

some precomputational

tools for thought

Written language

(3300 BCE)

Hindu–Arabic numerals

(600 CE)

Data visualization

(1786)

Analytical engine (1837)

Charles Babbage

Ada Lovelace

calculating machines

one of the first

mid 19th century

Manhattan Project

WW II Computing

a slice of

inspired

Alan Turing

"Universal Computing" (1936)

consulted on

Von Neumann Architecture

"Instructions as Data" (1945)

John von Neumann

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, ENIAC (1945)

Programmed by Betty Holberton, Kay McNulty, Marlyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, Betty Jean Jennings, and Fran Bilas

worked on

Batch computing

by punch cards

Programming could take 3 weeks

1940s

funded

Manhattan Project

WW II Computing

a slice of

Office of Scientific Research and Development

Vannevar Bush

As we may think (1945)

championed

1940s

and our tools shape us

we shape our tools

The tools we use to externally manipulate symbols (writing, drawing, computing) directly shape our language AND our thinking capabilities

Douglas Engelbart

Augmenting Human

Intellect (1962)

1960s

Artifacts — tools for manipulating materials and symbols.

Language — symbols we assign to concepts, allowing us to manipulate concepts at higher levels.

Methodology — procedures used in problem-solving.

Training — conditioning needed to practice 1, 2, and 3.

1960s

user friendly software?

Deeply Intertwingled

everything is

"Intertwingularity is not generally acknowledged—people keep pretending they can make things hierarchical, categorizable and sequential when they can't."

Computer Lib / Dream Machines

(1974)