Wall-sized mural co-created and signed by Dr. Douglas Engelbart, entitled “The Engelbart Hypothesis: How Tools Raise Collective I.Q. to Solve Urgent and Complex Problems / Timeline 1925-2010.” Computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart collaborated on this mural to serve as a vehicle for dialogue about his seminal technology ideas that inspired his world-changing innovations, including the invention of the computer mouse. This 16.5-foot by 4-foot mural is the first of two wall-size murals that situated Engelbart’s theories and inventions in the context of world events, social shifts, technology innovations, and popular culture. Demonstrating his theory of the ‘co-evolution of human and tool systems,’ the mural features a timeline that begins in 1925, the year of Dr. Engelbart’s birth, and concludes in 2010. The premise was for people to imagine the future.
“The Engelbart Hypothesis” mural was signed on the far right side in purple felt tip by Dr. Engelbart, who adds “(good work) 23 July 08," to encourage continuing collaboration with visual journalist Eileen Clegg and technology professor Valerie Landau, the latter who had worked with Engelbart for many years. The idea was that the mural could be used in gatherings of people who could learn from the past and help manifest Dr. Engelbart’s dream of harnessing technology to solve what he called the “complex and urgent problems” of our time.
The mural project began in partnership with Dr. Engelbart in 2008 to celebrate the 40th-anniversary celebration of his iconic 1968 ‘The Mother of All Demos,’ the moment when he stunned an audience at the Computer Society’s Fall Joint Conference in San Francisco, and eventually the world, by showing what we now call the mouse, windows, video-conferencing, word processing, and a myriad of other proto-Computer Age innovations. Forty years later, Dr. Engelbart still held the hope that technology could help humanity solve the world’s human and environmental problems. This mural enabled people to imagine the possibilities. Rolled in fine condition, with varying degrees of wear to the edges.
