jumps in human computer interaction, from the large, to the infinitely small and personal, the mainframe and timesharing, to singular devices, from teams of support to keep a machine running, to never ever needing to know about anything besides the stuff you do on it, like email, books, photos, and music. The device disappears. No longer are you looking and interacting with a computer screen, but you see and handle your data, your items, the pieces of your digital life. the machine got out of the way. it's too bad open doc went away, since I imagine that would have been even sweeter, to deal with objects, without caring about applications. along with removing the machine, and though it sounds opposite to it, but more ubiquitous computing, a machine that goes everywhere, used everywhere, that won't be out of place. it really is the future, a dynabook, as dreamed by alan kay, to the point i wonder if they had smalltalk or squeak on it, would that finally be the realization? and i laugh at those that fear the loss of tinkering, and ponder what new levels of tinkering remain, as the ladder now starts on a higher step, and maybe the tinkering happens at the data level, at the interaction level, in the more social, in the higher level, the image, the sound, and hope and dream of the children's future, on the shoulders of genius