From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> Subject: Engelbart's mouse / 40th anniversary To: "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 5:37 PM There was a blurb just now on the radio (CBC) about Engelbart's development of the mouse, including an audio recording of his presentation of it at a conference in 1968. That was nice, but weird/annnoying is that the reporter referred to it as a "discovery". Is it not possible to invent anything anymore? Is everything, and everything that will ever be in the future, an already-existing concept waiting out there in some alternative universe of the imagination, just waiting to be "discovered" by the mind of somebody? Or did I miss a debate about the semiotics of "discovery" vs. "invention" in the public discourse somewhere along the way? It's nice to be humble about achievements and acknowledge that developments are built upon other developments and don't occur in isolation but isn't this taking it a bit far?

There was a blurb just now on the radio (CBC) about Engelbart's development of the mouse, including an audio recording of his presentation of it at a conference in 1968. That was nice, but weird/annnoying is that the reporter referred to it as a "discovery". Is it not possible to invent anything anymore? Is everything, and everything that will ever be in the future, an already-existing concept waiting out there in some alternative universe of the imagination, just waiting to be "discovered" by the mind of somebody? Or did I miss a debate about the semiotics of "discovery" vs. "invention" in the public discourse somewhere along the way? It's nice to be humble about achievements and acknowledge that developments are built upon other developments and don't occur in isolation but isn't this taking it a bit far?