In 2017 I came across a scene on Twitter I dubbed Esoteric Bitcoin Twitter, discussing bitcoin as an information system, the blockchain as a timechain, the far future implications of digital permanence, Satoshi as a quantum superintelligence working backward through time, and a vision for a global interconnected hypertextual publishing and writing tool called Xanadu. I was intrigued.
Xanadu turned out to the be the vision of a legendary figure named Ted Nelson. A visionary and a prophet, he foretold the coming computer wave and coined the term "hypertext" in the early 70s, dreamed into the world we would access through interactive digital screens, and by the 90s had developed a theory of the structure of information and a plan for the hypertextual information system that would become home to human thinking, reading, writing, and conversing and thereby usher in a golden age of knowledge and communication.
At the time, I was a free agent and decided the OG hypertext prophet was someone to meet. I went to the DWeb Summit hosted by the Internet Archive, met Ted, and began a relationship that led to a bit over a year of spending 3-4 days a week with him: talking and helping him to sift through the sprawling and magnificent archives of 70 years of hyperdimensional existence at the edge of art, story, information, and technology.
We became friends.
Ted wrote many books, and a whole deal more, but two of his titles stand the test of time and became his famous works: Computer Lib and Literary Machines.
Of these two volumes, I've been entrusted with the remaining first and second printings along with various paraphernalia and related artifacts. My goal is to find appreciative homes for them all, aiming for both cultural impact and ensured stewardship of the books.
What is available for sale is available for sale here: https://www.computerlibbook.com
If you have ideas for activating these artifacts for the maximum enrichment of all, please reach out :)
"Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent." - Joe Soprano
james.risberg at gmail.com