Hacker Cinema
Hyperland
1990 · Film · documentary · 49 min
Directed by Max Whitby
This made-for-TV documentary introduces the layperson to concepts and technologies that were emerging in computer interface design in the late 1980s and early 1990s: hypertext, multimedia, virtual assistants, interactive video, 3D animation, and virtual reality.
4 positive2 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
I honestly don't think the modern web is a legitimate hypertext system at this point. It was already bad enough 20 years ago with flash and serverside CGI but now most of the major websites are just serving JavaScript programs that then fetch data using a dedicated API. And then there's all the paywalls and constant CAPTCHA checks to make sure you aren't training an LLM off their content without a license.
Look up hyperland, it's a early 90s documentary by Douglas Adams and the guy from doctor who about the then-future hypermedia revolution. I can remember the web resembling that a long time ago but the modern web is very far removed from anything remotely resembling hypertext.
”What do you get if you multiply six by nine? 42”
For the uninitiated, a famous comedy science fiction series from the 1980s — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams — involves a giant, planet sized machine built by extra-terrestrials.
They already knew the answer to “the life, the universe, and everything” was the number 42. What they didn’t know — and what the machine was trying to find out — was what is the question?
The machine they built was Earth.
It has to be said that not only was Adams way ahead of us on this joke, he was also the star of the original documentary on agentic software! Hyperland (1990): https://vimeo.com/72501076
I just discovered this amazing documentary about hypertext from 1990, written by Douglas Adams, with Tom Baker (The Fourth Doctor Who!) as a Software Agent, and featuring many other amazing people, like Ted Nelson!
Douglas Adams Hyperland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iAJPoc23-M&t=4m16s
>Douglas Adams: Are you sure you mean Agent?
>Software Agent: I mean that I'm a Software Agent. I am merely a simulacrum. An artificial and completely customizable personality. And I only exist as what we call an "Application" in your computer. I have the honor to provide instant access to every piece of information stored digitally anywhere in the world. Any picture, or film, any sound, any book, any statistic, any fact. Any connection between anything you care to think of, you have only to tell me, and it will be my humble duty to find it for you and to present it to you for your interactive pleasure. Is there anything I can do for you now, Mister Adams, sir?
>Douglas Adams: Well yes, you can stop being so obsequious, for a start.
>Software Agent: It will be my very great and profound pleasure to be less obsequious, oh Master. I am, as I humbly mentioned to you a moment ago, Fully Customizable. Allow me to present you with my Control Panel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Baker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Doctor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson
Interesting historic piece. the TV movie is called Hyperland (1990): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0188677/
Similar videos with good visions can be found from AT&T (the big old one), Microsoft and Apple - all from ca 1990.
Apple Knowledge Navigator TV advertisement (1987): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umJsITGzXd0
AT&T 1993 "You will" TV advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8 , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Will
"Information at your Fingertips" Microsoft presentation at COMDEX 1995: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XxeY-OchwY
"Microsoft Network" (MSN 1.0) TV advertisement (1995): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGYcNcFhctc&t=17m25s
And if you're into watching long videos of what the digital future was supposed to look like, Douglas Adams and Tom Baker made a documentary called Hyperland, and you can watch all 50 minutes of it here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7190175107515525470# or if you want a shorter video, here's Ted Nelson with a short demo of Xanadu as it existed in 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En_2T7KH6RA
I'm actually describing a future like Douglas Adams and Tom Baker showed in the 1991 film "Hyperland," or the vision Tim Berners Lee has outlined with the Semantic web.
I definitely want that.