Summary
Ted Nelson’s self-published Computer Lib / Dream Machines fused a populist call — “you can and must understand computers now” — with a visionary sketch of hypertext and interactive media. Written before the personal computer existed as a product, it argued that computing power should belong to individuals, not institutions.
Why it matters
Nelson coined “hypertext” and championed a document graph that everyone could author and own — a foundational idea for the Web and a clear antecedent of the Independent Internet’s ownership and equity principles. The book is a cultural pillar of decentralization as a movement, not just a technique.
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