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The Mother of All Demos, presented by Douglas Engelbart (1968)

Marcel · demo · Watch on YouTube

GUI, HCI & interface historyHistory of computingTech pioneers & interviews

What it is

The full recording of Douglas Engelbart's 1968 demonstration, which introduced the mouse, hypertext, video conferencing, word processing, and real-time collaborative editing. It runs about 100 minutes.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN treats it as an essential piece of computing history that shows how many modern interface ideas were already solved in 1968.

  • 8 people recommended it
  • 8 different months
  • 5 strong recommendations
  • first 2013, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “If you haven't seen it, it's well worth the hour and forty minutes.”

    Demo showing concepts decades ahead of their time.

    estreeper, 2013-07 · Strong recommendation · in “Douglas C. Engelbart, Inventor of the Computer Mouse, Dies at 88”

  2. “watching the mother of all demos once a year is a sobering reminder of that.”

    A sobering annual reminder of forgotten history.

    gjvc, 2015-05 · Strong recommendation · in “Web vs. native: let’s concede defeat”

  3. “The Mother Of All Demos is an absolute classic”

    An absolute classic old talk.

    otras, 2018-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: What are some old talks (10+ y) that are still relevant to watch today?”

  4. “I was so surprised when I watched "The Mother of All Demos" from 50+ years ago (1968)”

    1968 demo predicted video conferencing and collaborative editing.

    kbumsik, 2020-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Bill English has died”

  5. “It's long but it's well worth the watch.”

    Whole demo in one video; long but worth watching.

    mftb, 2022-06 · Strong recommendation · in “50th Anniversary of the Mother of All Demos (2018)”

  6. “all of what you see there was done by 12 people from scratch”

    Origin of much human interface design, built by 12 people.

    m_mueller, 2022-05 · Recommendation · in “Introduction to Microsoft Excel (1992) [video]”

  7. “One fascinating thing to me is that he is explaining things with clarity that we take for granted”

    Engelbart explains the mouse for the first time with clarity.

    memset, 2023-12 · Recommendation · in “1968-12-09 the mother of all demos”

  8. “For those who haven't watched it”

    UX problems were solved in 1968.

    hans-l, 2026-05 · Recommendation · in “Ratty – A terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: douglas engelbart, mother of all demos, hypertext, mouse, collaborative editing, human-computer interaction

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