Dr. Alan Kay: Father Of The PC
By Tom Kertes

“Children are the messages we send to the future,” said Dr. Alan C. Kay in his intensely inspirational Lynford Lecture at Polytechnic University. “So whenever we’re talking about the real future, we must talk about kids. Because what they learn, and what they consider to be normal, becomes most of what humanity winds up doing.”

Dr. Kay’s was the fourth in the series of annual lectures by leading scientists at the school. Currently the President of Viewpoints Research Institute Inc., he was uniquely qualified to be the next member of this illustrious group. “He is not only a pioneer in the development of the personal computer, but is also the architect of the Graphic User Interface, modern object-oriented programming, and many other major inventions”, Mr. Jeffrey Lynford, Polytechnic University Trustee, said in his introductory remarks. “Perhaps equally importantly, his deep interest in children and education were the catalysts for these ideas. Dr. Kay has focused his considerable intellect at the point where computer technology and learning intersect.”

Indeed, long before the world understood the importance of computer literacy being initiated in the public school classroom, Dr. Kay was working on software essential to accomplish this very objective. “I have spent much of my career defining and enhancing the relationship between children and the computer,” he said.

“It all began in the 1950s when Jean Piaget, the Swiss developmental scientist, rewrote educational theory by watching children learn,” Dr. Kay added. What appeared to adults as mere “play” up to that point, was actually the way children acquired knowledge. “This implied to me that the computer and its software could be an important ‘transitional object for children,” Dr. Kay said.

The most significant characteristic of transitional phenomena is not the object itself but the nature of the relationship to the object. Thus the goal was “to link a child’s natural desire to fantasize and learn from experimentation with the computer’s power to simulate potentially anything,” according to Dr. Kay.

Computers would also promote the development of a different type of thinking. As an illustration, Dr. Kay used an informal 1991 study, wherein 21 of 23 questioned Harvard graduates reasoned that “the weather has different seasons due to the earth’s elliptical movement around the sun.” “They clearly had knowledge of certain scientific facts,” Dr. Kay said. “But they were unable to conceptualize and think beyond those facts.”

Dr. Kay analogized the essential impact of the PC to the invention of the printing press. “There have been manuscripts around since 3500 B.C.,” he said. “But it was Gutenberg’s Bible and, in 1500, the Venetian scientist Aldis’ invention of the appropriate book size that shaped arguments and began to formulate a different type of thinking.”

“That was the first time books could be lost. And it would be no big deal – you’d just get another one,” said Kay. “Indeed, that’s one of the ways we know that the real computer revolution hasn’t happened yet,” he concluded. “When we can start to lose our computers without a major financial impact, we’ll be closer to the promised land.” However, that eventuality is not likely to happen in my lifetime.

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