When you read “Mother of All Demos“, what comes to mind?

Maybe a mix of the Mother of Dragons from Game of Thrones and a demo of a SaaS product done particularly well?

Fair thought; however, it’s a coined term referring to a specific historic event in 1968.

A man by the name of Douglas Engelbart showed the future of technology, a computer that supported video conferencing, typing, copying, and saving files.

An epochal blend of hardware and software never before seen.

It’s equivalent to showing a 2005 model car to a person who road a buggy.

It was epochal.

Yet, amidst these historic moments, it’s worth noting that Engelbart was widely considered off the rails by many in the computer science community.

And worse yet, while the technology was fantastic, no action was taken.

Common thought was that it was too far out. So a small group, the early adopters grabbed tight, but it didn’t impact computer science as a whole, observed Andy van Dam.

Enjoy this bit of the history yourself by watching the demonstration here.

Photo by Bryan Williams on Unsplash.