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ADVANCED INTELLECT-AUGMENTATION TECHNIQUES by D - -, 3 i.? NASACONTRACTOR NASA REPORT C.1 LOAN COPY RETURN TO AFWL (DOWL) KIRTUND AFB, N. M, ADVANCED INTELLECT-AUGMENTATION TECHNIQUES by D. C. Engelburt und Staff of Augmegztution Reseurch Center Prepared by STANFORD RESEARCH INSTITUTE Menlo Park, Calif. 94025 .for LangZey Research Center - .~ - .. - - . - - "_ - -- 1. ReportNo. I 2. Government Accession No. 73.Recipient's Catalog No. NASA CR-1827 """ ~~~ ~~ 1 .~ ~~~ I 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date February 1972 ADVANCED INTELLECT-AUGMENTATION TECHNIQUES 6. Performing Organization Code __~___. .___ I 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. D. C. Engelbart and Staff of Augmentation Research Center SRI Project 7079 . -~ . - ~ 10. Work Unit No. 9. Performing Organization Name and Address Stanford Research Institute 11. Contract orGrant No. MenloPark, California 94025 I NAS1-7897 13. Type of Report and Period Covered -~ ~ ~ 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address Contractor Report National Aeronautics and Space Administration 14. Sponsoring Agency Code Washington, D.C.20546 __~__-~ 15. Supplementary Notes This report covers the extension of research previously reported in NASA CR-1270. ~ "- 16. Abstract This report covers a two-year project, at the eleventh year of a growing, multiproject program that is exploring the value of computer aids to augmenting human intellectual capability. Outlined briefly are the background and the "bootstrapping" nature of the program, its resources, ai the activities it has undertaken in pursuit of its goals. User experience in applying our augmentation tools and techniques to various normal working tasks within our Center is described so as to convey a subjective impression of what it is like to work in an augmented environment. It is concluded that working- support, computer-aid systems for augmenting individuals and teams, of the general sort we have been experimenting with, are undoubtedly going to be widely developed and used. A very special role in this development is seen for multi-access computer networks: they will become special marketplaces where a new kind of competitive evolution will take place, not only in hardware, software, and special services as "bought" from a "utility, 'I but also in roles, skills, working methods, and employment dynamics for the intellectual workers at the terminals. ~____.." ~- -... 17. Key Words(Suggested byAuthor(s)) 18. Distribution Statement Intellect augmentation Man-Machine communication Unclassified - Unlimited On-line interaction ARPA network Text manipulation Computer displays .~ -. .. - - 19. Security Classif. (of this report) 20. Security Classif. (of this page) 21. No. of Pages ' 22. Price' Unclassified Unclassified 201 $3.00 - - ""~ . "" ~ ____ For sale by the National Technical InformationService, Springfield, Virginia 22151 I PREFACE Theresearch described in this report represents conceptual, design,and development work by a largenumber of people; the programhas been active as a coordinatedteam effort since 1963. Theresearch reported here was a cooperativeteam effort involvingthe entire ARC staff.The following is an alphabetical listingof the current ARC staff: Geoffrey H. Ball,Walter L. Bass,Vernon R. Baughman, Mary G. Caldwell,Roberta A. Carillon,David Casseres, Mary S. Church, William S. Duvall,Douglas C. Engelbart, William K. English, AnnR. Geoffrion, Martin L. Hardy,Jared M. Harris, J. David Hopper,Charles H. Irby, L. StephenLeonard, John T. Melvin, N. DeanMeyer, James C. Norton, Bruce L. Parsley,William H. Paxton,Jake Ratliff, Barbara E. Row,Martha E. Trundy,Edward K. Vande Riet, John M. Yarborough. Thefollowing former ARC staffmembers also contributed to the research: Donald I. Andrews,Roger D. Bates,David A. Evans, Stephen R. L,evine, Stephen H. Paavola,Helen H. Prince,Jons F. Rulifson, Elmer B. Shapiro, F. K. Tomlin. CONTENTS PREFACE ...................................................... iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ......................................... vi I INTRODUCTION ................................................ 1 A . General ............................................... 1 B . ResearchApproach and Strategy .......................... 1 C . PrincipalConcerns During the Contract Period........... 2 . D. Structureof This Report ................................ 3 I1 RESOURCESAND ACTIVITES .................................... 5 A . Introduction............................................ 5 B . Resources ............................................... 5 C . Activities ............................................. 19 111 APPLICATIONSAND EXPERIENCE .............................. 23 A . Introduction........................................... 23 B . TheAugmented Software Engineer ........................ 29 C . TheAugmented Manager .................................. 63 D . TheAugmented Report-Writing Team ..................... 103 E . TheAugmented Presentation ............................ 112 IV THENETWORK INFORMATION CENTER ........................... 119 A . Overviewof the ARPA Network .......................... 119 B . Someof Our Prospective Uses for theNetwork .......... 122 C . Needfor a NetworkInformation Center .................125 D . NICDevelopment Activity .............................. 126 E . CurrentNIC Plans ..................................... 129 V CONCLUSIONS.RECOMMENDATIONS. AND PLANS ................... 133 A . introduction.......................................... 133 B . ConclusionsRelevant to Other Augmentation-System Developers ........................ 133 C . OurGeneral Orientation Towards Future Research .......146 D . Overvewof Current Augmentation Research Center Plans .................... 150 AppendixA: User Features of NLS andTODAS ..................173 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................. 195 V I- . ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 11-1: XDS940 COMPUTER FACILITY ....................... 6 Figure 11-2:SPECIAL DEVICES CHANNEL ........................ 7 Figures 111-1 through 111-28: PHOTOGRAPHSSHOWING NLSDISPLAY IN USE BY A SOFTWARE ENGINEER ..............35-62 Figures 111-29through 111-56: PHOTOGRAPHSSHOWING NLSDISPLAY OF MANAGEMENT INFORMATION FILES ...........75-102 Figure V-1: "HERMAN MILLER" CONSOLE ....................... 137 Figure V-2: ONE-PIECE CONSOLE ............................. 138 Figure V-3: CURRENTCONSOLE DESIGN ........................139 vi I INTRODUCTION A. General TheAugmentation Research Center (ARC) is a community of researchers,supported by several contract sponsors. It is dedicatedto exploring the possibilities for augmentingthe intellectualactivities of people working in complex problem-solvingsituations. By"augmentation" we mean increasing the capability of a personor organization to approach complex situations and identifyproblems present there, to gain comprehension of thenature and context of these problems, and to derive solutionssatisfying given constraints. Suchincreased capability may be r.eflected in anyof the followingways: faster and better.comprehension, the possibilityof gaining a usefuldegree of comprehension in situationsthat were previously too complex, faster and bettersolutions, and the possibility of finding solutions toproblems that previously seemed insolu.ble. B. ResearchApproach and Strategy ARC'Sorientation is based on the fact that modern man is confrontedwith problems of increasing complexity and urgency, andthe assumption that in attacking these problems the best long-termpayoffs will morelikely come through the developmentof more powerful p.roblem-solving tools of a generalnature than through direct, piecemeal attacks on specificproblems of immediate urgency. Thisorientation was spelled out in 1962 in a planning document(Ref. 2) thatprovided the conceptualframework under which ARChas been evolving. (Note: keference numbers are not consecutivein this report, but refer to the chronological bibliography.)Our approach to augmentation research has two essentialaspects: the externalization of intellectual structures in symbolicform, making use of highlyinteractive computersystems, and the application of a bootstrapping strategyin the research program for developing augmentation systems. Thepurpose of externalization via computer systems is to make it possiblefor people to work with intellectual structures(such as computer programs or highly interconnectedbodies of textual information) of much greatersize and complexity than can be effectually handled with traditionaltechniques. The aim in designingthe computersystems has been to provide people with 1 I_ . - Section I INTRODUCTION increasinglyflexible and powerful ways of using structures ofsymbols to represent intellectual structures and of viewingand manipulating these symbolic structures. Thebootstrapping strategy has been used in orderto ensure thetightest possible feedback in theprocess of developing augmentationaids and in orderto catalyze the research programby bringing higher and higher levels of augmentationto the researchers themselves. All augmentationaids designed by ARC areintended for actual, practicaluse in ARC itself,and once implemented they are, for themost part, used heavily on a day-to-daybasis. C. PrincipalConcerns During the Contract Period Duringthe period covered by this contract,three ongoing processesreflected the principal concernsof ARC: the followingsections describe these processes. 1. NLS Development Atthe end of theprevious contract period (see Ref. 12). themulti-user On-Line System, NLS (whichhad been developedfrom previous singie-user systems), had been carriedfrom the early design stages through
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