Dark Patterns: Interface Design, Augmentation and Crisis

In early 1951, Douglas Engelbart — a young and idealistic electrical engineer working odd jobs for research laboratories in California — was suddenly taken by an unexpected series of epiphanies. Having spent time working on radar equipment during World War II and now contemplating how to make a significant contribution to society with his career, ‘the most difference for improving the lot of the human race’ (1986, 188), Engelbart considered the increasing complexity and urgency of global problems. His assessment involved an essential rationale — that for any given problem, the product of its complexity multiplied by its urgency would provide a measure of the immense difficulty that humanity would face in developing solutions. This led to a succession of rapid illuminations:

FLASH-1: The difficulty of mankind’s problems was increasing at a greater rate than our ability to cope. (We are in trouble.)

FLASH-2: Boosting mankind’s ability to deal with complex, urgent problems would be an attractive candidate as an arena in which a young person might try to ‘make the most difference.’ (Yes, but there’s that question of what does the young electrical engineer do about it? Retread for a role as educator, research psychologist, legislator, …? Is there any handle there that an electrical engineer could …?)

FLASH-3: Ahah — graphic vision surges forth of me sitting at a large CRT console working in ways that are rapidly evolving in front of my eyes (beginning from memories of the radar-screen consoles I used to service).

(Engelbart 1986, 186)