Mindstorms at Forty — Why Papert Still Matters
Seymour Papert's Mindstorms (1980) reimagined the computer as a tool for children to think with. Four decades later, here is why constructionism, Logo, and the turtle still matter.
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Essays
Long-form pieces on the people and ideas that shaped computing — and the ones still trying to reshape it.
The Future of Programming Was Yesterday
Bret Victor's talks Inventing on Principle and The Future of Programming argue that programming took a wrong turn, and that the most dangerous idea is believing we know how it must be done. An essay.
Read essaySmalltalk and the Big Idea of Messaging
Smalltalk gave us object-oriented programming — but in its original sense, the big idea was messaging and late binding, not classes and inheritance. An essay on what we kept and what we lost.
Read essayThe Mother of All Demos
In 1968 Douglas Engelbart demonstrated the mouse, hypertext, screen editing, windows, and live collaboration in a single ninety-minute session — the Mother of All Demos. An essay on what he showed and why.
Read essayAs We May Think — Vannevar Bush and the Memex
Vannevar Bush's 1945 essay As We May Think imagined the memex — a desk that stores all your books and links them by associative trails. An essay on the document that launched the tools-for-thought tradition.
Read essayThe Dynabook That Never Was (and Always Is)
Alan Kay's 1972 Dynabook imagined a personal, dynamic computer as a creative medium for children of all ages. An essay on how the hardware arrived and the vision didn't.
Read essayNotation as a Tool of Thought
Kenneth Iverson's 1979 Turing Award lecture argued that notation is not a passive record of thought but an active tool that shapes it. An essay on APL, place-value, and why notation matters.
Read essayLisp and the Idea of Code as Data
An essay on Lisp, John McCarthy's 1960 idea that code and data are the same kind of thing, the metacircular evaluator, and why homoiconicity still matters.
Read essayObjects to Think With
An essay on Seymour Papert's idea of objects to think with — concrete or computational things that carry an abstract idea in a form you can manipulate and reason with directly.
Read essayWhat Is Constructionism?
A clear explanation of constructionism — Seymour Papert's learning theory built on Piaget's constructivism — and why building things in the world helps us build ideas in the mind.
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