E-mail correspondence with Professor Ted Nelson

Message #1

Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 22:52:33 +0900
From: Ted Nelson (ted@xanadu.net)
To: leng@cjas.org
Subject: :xu,we: Inaccuracies

Hi--

I appreciate your putting stuff about me on the Lain site.
However, let me correct a couple of points--

>Ted Nelson, who studied under the two cult pioneers Vannevar Bush and John
>C. Lilly,

Wrong on both. I was employed by Lilly, not a student of his. Also,
"Studied under" implies in English that you were in contact with the
living person. I read Bush's article as a boy and talked to him briefly
in 1968, that's all.

>proposed a giant electronic library in satellites in stationary
>orbit which could be used at any terminal on Earth via radio or telephone
>lines. He called this concept that would make this database 'Xanadu.'

Nope. The stationary orbit was mooted as a fanciful idea but
it was not at all related to the core Xanadu concept, which is a
specific family of data structures, which I have to explain endlessly.
See http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/XUsurvey/xuDation.html

Best wishes, Ted Nelson

_________________________________________
Theodor Holm Nelson
Project Professor, Keio University SFC Campus, Fujisawa, Japan
Visiting Professor, University of Southampton, England
· e-mail: ted@xanadu.net · world-wide fax 1/415/332-0136
· http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/ · http://www.xanadu.net
· Coordinates in USA Tel. 415/ 331-4422
Project Xanadu, 3020 Bridgeway #295, Sausalito CA 94965
_________________________________________

Message #2

Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 12:09:58 -0500 (EST)
From: Lawrence Eng (leng@cjas.org)
To: Ted Nelson (ted@xanadu.net)
Subject: Re: :xu,we: Inaccuracies

Dear Professor Nelson,
Thank you for taking the time to write. I want the information on my site
to be accurate, so I apologize if I have misrepresented you in any way. However, the
text that you cite:

"Ted Nelson, who studied under the two cult pioneers Vannevar Bush and
John C. Lilly, proposed a giant electronic library in satellites in stationary
orbit which could be used at any terminal on Earth via radio or telephone
lines. He called this concept that would make this database 'Xanadu.'"

is not actually present on my Lain site that I am aware of.

However, on http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lain.htm#nelson I _did_ write:

--
Ted Nelson
Outspoken member of the computer industry. Inspired by Vannevar Bush, he
expanded the concept of Memex and proposed the Xanadu system, where there
will be a globally accessible electronic archive of all the world's text,
possibly implemented by putting it in a satellite in space. Nelson's
vision of Xanadu has never fully come into fruition, though many of his
concepts have influenced and been incorporated into other technologies
such as the World Wide Web. Ted Nelson coined the term "hypertext" and is
currently a professor at Keio University in Japan.

Related links:
Ted Nelson's official webpage
--

Please let me know if any of that is inaccurate. The reference to the
satellite comes directly from the Lain anime, which is where the confusion
may have started, but I will include a caveat explaining it (versus
the specific family of data structures) was/is not the main point of
Xanadu.

According to production materials, Chiaki Konaka, the writer of Lain, most
likely intended to say "Theodore (sic) Nelson learned many things from
Vannever (sic) Bush and John Lilly, two unconventional pioneers."

Would that be more accurate than "studied under"?

Thanks again for writing. I did a quick search on the web for the text you
quoted, and I can only find it here:
*************omitted*************

-Lawrence
http://www.cjas.org/~leng/open.htm

(quoted messaged omitted)

Message #3

Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 14:35:16 +0900
From: Ted Nelson (ted@xanadu.net)
To: Lawrence Eng (leng@cjas.org)
Subject: Re: :xu,we: Inaccuracies

Thanks so much for your concern for accuracy. I didn't check
the URL of the site I was looking at. Could well have been
>*************omitted*************

>According to production materials, Chiaki Konaka, the writer of Lain, most
>likely intended to say "Theodore (sic) Nelson learned many things from
>Vannever (sic) Bush and John Lilly, two unconventional pioneers."
>
>Would that be more accurate than "studied under"?

Yup, although (as you suggest) he should be spelt "Vannevar".

Best wishes, Ted N.

(quoted messaged and sig omitted)

Message #4

Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 01:43:33 -0500 (EST)
From: Lawrence Eng (leng@cjas.org)
To: ted@xanadu.net
Subject: Re: :xu,we: Inaccuracies

Dear Prof. Nelson,

I'll make the necessary changes to my text ASAP. To ensure that the
full and accurate story is presented and for the interest of the readers,
do you mind if I repost excerpts (or the full text) of our short email
exchange, including your e-mail address and the
http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/XUsurvey/xuDation.html link you gave me?

Please let me know. Thanks for your time.

sincerely,

Lawrence Eng
http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lain.htm

(quoted messaged omitted)

Message #5

Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 22:59:03 +0900
From: Ted Nelson (ted@xanadu.net)
To: Lawrence Eng (leng@cjas.org>)
Subject: Re: :xu,we: Inaccuracies

Sure.

My documents are going to be moved around, however.

Best, Ted N.

(quoted messaged and sig omitted)

Back to thought experiments lain

Lawmune's Netspace

Last updated on March 18th, 2002
Lawrence Eng
leng@cjas.org