Alan Kay reimagined what a computer could be. Inspired by Jean Piaget and building off of the work of Seymour Papert, J. C. R. Licklider and others, he envisioned the possibility that computers could become something far more than powerful calculating machines.
They could become learning tools, something that could empower our creative potential. If only we could reimagine, to imagine that potential on a Blue Plane.
To help unlock this potential, he created, with his team at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a new software language, Smalltalk.
Using Smalltalk, his team began to learn. To create in new ways. Could the computer reimagine how we wrote? Could the computer help us reimagine how we drew? Could the computer help us reimagine how we made music?
What we know as the personal computer was defined by these early questions. A computer that, in each or our hands, could become a creative instrument. One that might help us unleash our genius.
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