Mark Weiser

information fingertips walk woods computer relax

“There is more information available at our fingertips during a walk in the woods than in any computer system, yet people find a walk among trees relaxing and computers frustrating. Machines that fit the human environment, instead of forcing humans to enter theirs, will make using a computer as refreshing as taking a walk in the woods.”

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

profound technology disappear everyday life

"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

machine human environment forcing refresh walk woods

"Machines that fit the human environment, instead of forcing humans to enter theirs, will make using a computer as refreshing as taking a walk in the woods."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

computer interface design dramatic exiting invisible

"For thirty years most interface design, and most computer design, has been headed down the path of the "dramatic" machine. Its highest idea is to make a computer so exciting, so wonderful, so interesting, that we never want to be without it. A less-traveled path I call the "invisible"; its highest idea is to make a computer so imbedded, so fitting, so natural, that we use it without even thinking about it."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

networkers same alike mediocre think differently

"I see a sea of networkers all doing and saying the same things.

They look alike, act alike and sound alike when speaking to prospects. If you want to rise above the average, mediocre networker... then you have to think differently."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

PC workstation wither ubiquitous grab

"Long term, the PC and workstation will wither because computing access will be everywhere: in the walls, on wrists, and in 'scrap computers' lying about waiting to be grabbed as needed."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

ubiquitous computing mainframe PC desktop calm technology inform

"Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

virtual reality VR apparatus simulate world exist

"Virtual reality focuses an enormous apparatus on simulating the world rather than on invisibly enhancing the world that already exists."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

virtual reality VR map territory

"virtual reality is only a map, not a territory."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

multimedia computer attention screen

"Today's multimedia machine makes the computer screen into a demanding focus of attention rather than allowing it to fade into the background."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

learn sufficient well awareness reading

"Whenever people learn something sufficiently well, they cease to be aware of it. When you look at a street sign, for example, you absorb its information without consciously performing the act of reading."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

profound technology disappear writing

"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it. Consider writing, perhaps the first information technology. The ability to represent spoken language symbolically for longterm storage freed information from the limits of individual memory. Today this technology is ubiquitous in industrialized countries."

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

computers complex jargon people user

"More than 50 million personal computers have been sold, and the computer nonetheless remains largely in a world of its own. It is approachable only through complex jargon that has nothing to do with the tasks for which people use computers.

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

profound technology disappear

"The most profound technologies are those that disappear." ― ― ― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

resource technology attention

“The scarce resource of the 21st century will not be technology; it will be attention.”

― Mark Weiser (1952-1999)