# RIP Douglas Engelbart (tech visionary and inventor of the mouse) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 3, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574 "2013-07-03T19:46:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/1 "2013-07-03T19:46:43Z")
[Douglas Englebart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart) was the inventor who helped to develop much of the technology that we are using right now: the mouse, GUI, hypertext, networked computers. His legendary “[mother of all demos](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY#at=2239)” showcased these and other technologies way back in 1968. If ever there was a moment when someone could say “I have seen the future and it works !” this was it. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/2 "2013-07-03T19:49:01Z")
Damn! I just used one of his inventions to click on the link to read this. We all live in the world Doug Englebart foresaw. Perhaps this should be re-titled to indicate who he was. Sadly, not everyone is aware of his impact. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/3 "2013-07-03T20:22:42Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Perhaps this should be re-titled to indicate who he was. Sadly, not everyone is aware of his impact. Good idea. Mods , if you see this, please add " (tech visionary and inventor of the mouse) " to the title. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/4 "2013-07-03T20:39:16Z")
I reported your post asking to edit the title. So hopefully a mod will be a long shortly. I’m watching the video now. Very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/5 "2013-07-03T20:41:27Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > Good idea. Mods , if you see this, please add " (tech visionary and inventor of the mouse) " to the title. Done. And, FYI, you can report your own post for something like this, instead of waiting for a mod to wander by – which may or may not happen. (We don’t read every post in every thread in every forum.) ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/6 "2013-07-03T20:48:31Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Done. > > And, FYI, you can report your own post for something like this, instead of waiting for a mod to wander by – which may or may not happen. (We don’t read every post in every thread in every forum.) OK. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/7 "2013-07-04T04:42:18Z")
RIP, Mr. Engelbart. You’re in the pantheon of those who have impacted civilization greatly w/o the vast majority of the people you’ve influenced knowing who you are. Like Mother Theresa being overshadowed by dying a few days after Lady Diana, it’s your loss to have died in the same week [some random dog got shot](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=695360). ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/8 "2013-07-04T08:17:04Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > [Douglas Englebart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart) was the inventor who helped to develop much of the technology that we are using right now: the mouse, GUI, hypertext, networked computers. > > His legendary “[mother of all demos](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY#at=2239)” showcased these and other technologies way back in 1968. If ever there was a moment when someone could say “I have seen the future and it works !” this was it. It was 1968. Back then the idea just of word processing would have been amazing enough. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/9 "2013-07-04T12:02:09Z")
I thought Apple invented the mouse. (No, not really) ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/10 "2013-07-04T12:56:03Z")
It would be cool if his coffin had some red LED 's under it and a cable snaking off out the door of the funeral home. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/11 "2013-07-04T17:03:54Z")
The article on Slashdot contained a pretty good summarization of his impact: > [@](#): > > If you use a mouse, hyperlinks, video conferencing, WYSIWYG word processor, multi-window user interface, shared documents, shared database, documents with images & text, keyword search, instant messaging, synchronous collaboration, or asynchronous collaboration, you can thank Doug Engelbart… When you consider that he introduced most of that in the same demo, you begin to get some idea of his impact on the world we now live in. At the time, it was like his saucer had crashed on this planet, and he was giving us a tour. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/12 "2013-07-04T17:09:36Z")
a creative visionary that had original visions and actually brought those visions about with the help of others. not creative with terms though. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/13 "2013-07-05T23:22:08Z")
After he retired from his regular career, Logitech hired him (and his daughter) - just to give him a place to hang his hat. (He didn’t get rich off of his ideas because he didn’t own them.) It gave everyone a chance to see living history walking around. His office was just down the hall from my team. R.I.P. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2013, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/14 "2013-07-06T01:19:15Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > After he retired from his regular career, Logitech hired him (and his daughter) - just to give him a place to hang his hat. (He didn’t get rich off of his ideas because he didn’t own them.) Specifically, he didn’t patent them. Not really the same thing. He was a bit like Dr. Salk in that way. > [@](#): > > It gave everyone a chance to see living history walking around. His office was just down the hall from my team. > > R.I.P. That sounds decent enough of them - build a multi-billion-dollar industry on a man’s brilliance, it is literally the very least one can do. Not to be too hard on Logitech specifically, but if he made a penny on every mouse sold, he would have had a very nice retirement indeed. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-douglas-engelbart-tech-visionary-and-inventor-of-the-mouse/662574/15 "2013-07-08T03:58:35Z")
[A rather depressing story about Englebart’s 40 years in the wilderness.](http://www.zdnet.com/the-shocking-truth-about-silicon-valley-genius-doug-engelbart-7000017660/)