As I looked over how Alan Kay had described the Dynabook in 1972 (in "A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages") the thought that was forming in my head was "Hmm... This sounds like my PDA", at least in terms of the hardware configuration (though the PDA is smaller), and the way the owner would interact with the hardware. The "tablet" computers of today (sans physical keyboard) would fit the description more accurately. The only part missing would be the software. When I think about the software characteristics, I think Squeak/eToys matches pretty well with the educational qualities that he described for it. In terms of business and other personal uses, I think that part would need to be developed more to match what he described.

It's uncanny. If you take a look at how he described the Dynabook interacting with what was called the ARPANet back then (the internet), and translated it to today's web medium, he was right on in predicting the future. He used some old-fashioned terminology for things, but if you look at the concepts beneath the labels, what he described is what we have now. I especially liked this line. He just got done describing all the different things a Dynabook user could access through the ARPANet, including "stores" and "billboards", and then he says:

"One can imagine one of the first programs an owner will write is a filter to eliminate advertising!"

Today we call them "pop-up blockers"! :)

---Mark
mmille10 at comcast.net