The Internet Chronicles – Part 4 of 12: From Writing Commands to Clicking a Link

Andrei Mihai

We take it for granted nowadays, but the internet is one of the most impactful inventions of modern times – possibly even of all time. But how did it all start? The story of the internet is a fascinating journey through the minds of visionary thinkers and relentless innovators, many of them coming from mathematics and computer science. In this 12-part series, we will dive into some of the stories and contributions of the trailblazers who laid the foundations for the interconnected world we live in today.

Previously, we looked at the vision that started it all, the concept of packet switching, and the common “language” for the internet. But in the 1960s, computers were still nowhere near the interactive hubs we know today.

When you think about computers connected to the internet, you probably imagine sleek laptops or robust servers. Yet in the early days of the internet, computers were anything but sleek or robust. They were rigid, hulking machines, primarily used for calculations. They processed data but were not user-friendly at all.

That started changing with Douglas Engelbart.

Augmenting Human Intellect

Engelbart grew up during the Great Depression. He studied electrical engineering and served in the Navy during World War II, working as a radar technician in the Philippines. He eventually got a PhD at UC Berkeley and ended up at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) where he began shaping his revolutionary vision for computers.

In a landmark 1962 essay, Engelbart argued that computers could do far more than just crunch numbers –they could amplify human intelligence and enable collaboration. He envisioned a future where computers would enhance problem-solving, simplify complex tasks, and increase capability across a range of professions.

“Increased capability in this respect is taken to mean a mixture of the following: more-rapid comprehension, better comprehension, the possibility of gaining a useful degree of comprehension in a situation that previously was too complex, speedier solutions, better solutions, and the possibility of finding solutions to problems that before seemed insoluble. And by “complex situations” we include the professional problems of diplomats, executives, social scientists, life scientists, physical scientists, attorneys, designers—whether the problem situation exists for twenty minutes or twenty years,” Engelbart wrote in his essay.

“We do not speak of isolated clever tricks that help in particular situations. We refer to a way of life in an integrated domain where hunches, cut-and-try, intangibles, and the human “feel for a situation” usefully co-exist with powerful concepts, streamlined terminology and notation, sophisticated methods, and high-powered electronic aids.”

This idea was radical. At the time, computers were seen as tools for calculations, not as interactive instruments for thinking and working. To achieve his vision, Engelbart knew new tools were needed.

The Mouse: An Unlikely Revolution

Engelbart foresaw both hardware and software innovations. In 1963, at a conference on computer graphics, he laid out his idea to mix existing computers with planimeters by inputting coordinate data (X and Y). He envisioned a tool he called a “bug” that could move a cursor and coordinate with the keyboard, enhancing the computer user’s capability.

That “bug” became the computer mouse – a simple yet revolutionary device. We take it for granted today but have you ever tried to use a computer without a mouse (or touchpad)? There is a very good reason why the mouse (or equivalent technology) has become ubiquitous: We cannot even imagine operating computers without it.

Before the mouse, users had to input commands through complex text-based interfaces. This made computing slow, technical, and intimidating for the average person. Engelbart’s mouse changed that. It introduced an intuitive way to interact with digital spaces, essentially paving the way for graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Bill English, then the chief engineer at SRI, built the first computer mouse prototype in 1964.

The wooden prototype, with a single button and two perpendicular wheels, allowed users to move a cursor on a screen. It did not take long for improved designs with multiple buttons and better navigation to be created.

Today, the mouse (along with its modern cousin, the trackpad) remains a fundamental input device. It paved the way for point-and-click navigation, a concept now essential to web browsing and internet use. Without it, icons, hyperlinks, and interactive content would be far less accessible. Yet, this was just one part of what Engelbart envisioned.

The Mother of All Demos

If you are reading this, the odds are you are reading it on a screen, whether it be a computer, tablet, or mobile phone. If this is the case, you got here in one of two ways: by typing in the URL address (which is rather unlikely) or by clicking a link.

Much like the computer mouse, the link is so banal that we rarely even bother thinking about it. It is such a straightforward and elegant concept that it has become the foundation of Internet navigation. This concept too, was brought to life by Engelbart, even before there was a proper, functioning internet.

In simple terms, hypertext allows users to jump between different pieces of information through links. Engelbart demonstrated this idea in 1968 during his famous “Mother of All Demos” presentation. He showcased a system called NLS (oN-Line System), where text could be linked dynamically. This was decades before the World Wide Web, but the principle was the same: connected knowledge.

Links, however, were just a small part of The Mother of All Demos. The presentation anticipated the World Wide Web, speech recognition, video conferencing, word processing, collaborative real-time editors, and online encyclopaedias such as Wikipedia. Engelbart noted: “Wholly new forms of encyclopaedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.” These “trails” are the hyperlinks and associated paths.

After the 90-minute presentation, Engelbart got a standing ovation from the audience, which was all the more remarkable because many researchers in the community thought Engelbart was a “crackpot.”

The Philosophy Behind Innovation

Given how visionary and impactful Engelbart’s work has been, it is surprising to learn how it started. According to his own account, he realized as he was engaged and about to be married, that he had no career goals. He began researching events like the Crusades at the local library. He started looking around at the events of the Great Depression; that was when he realized that we needed better ways to deal with complex issues or that we, as a society, would inevitably struggle.

Looking for a guiding light, he decided that he would focus on making the world a better place, and computers were the catalyst for that goal. While serving in the Philippines, he read an impactful essay called “As We May Think”. This essay envisioned a future where humans could efficiently organize, store, and retrieve vast amounts of knowledge using a device called the Memex—a theoretical machine resembling a modern hyperlinked information system. The author was Vannevar Bush, who spearheaded the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) during WWII. Bush was concerned that science is sometimes linked to destruction (understandable, given that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were recent events) and hoped that scientists would organize better structures for knowledge. This vision would go on to significantly influence Engelbart’s vision for computer interaction.

However, after the groundbreaking Mother of All Demos presentation, things did not go as planned for Engelbart. In the early 1970s, most of his team left the lab and went to work in different places (many still continuing work on internet or computer interaction). After the SRI was disbanded due to lack of funding, Engelbart slipped into relative obscurity.

“I was sent to Siberia,” he joked in a 1999 interview. Even as many of his ideas and concepts became reality, he received little recognition from the industry; he never became a household name in the industry, yet academically, his work was cherished. As redemption, Engelbart received the National Medal of Technology in 2000, and the British Computer Society’s Lovelace Medal in 2001. The industry he had helped shape overlooked him, but his contributions paved the way for much of what we see online today. Today’s internet thrives on interaction, collaboration, and accessibility – all principles Engelbart championed decades ago. When you work in a collaborative space or have a video call with someone, you are pretty much doing exactly what Engelbart anticipated over 50 years ago.

Yet this is not the final chapter.

Looking ahead, interactive computing continues to evolve. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and new forms of human-computer interaction are expanding Engelbart’s legacy even further. The dream of computers enhancing human potential is still unfolding – much as he envisioned it.

With its new tools, the internet was ready to step into the public eye. However, there was still no structure for the internet. It was one of Engelbart’s collaborators who would start to organize things, but that is a story for the next installment.

The post The Internet Chronicles – Part 4 of 12: From Writing Commands to Clicking a Link originally appeared on the HLFF SciLogs blog.