Alan Kay

The visionary of personal computing, whose Smalltalk and Dynabook sketches defined the laptop and the tablet decades early.

Specifications & Metrics

era

born 1940

Core Principles & Analysis

• His 1968 Dynabook described a tablet computer for children, with a flat screen and wireless.
• Smalltalk, built with Adele Goldberg and Dan Ingalls, invented the overlapping-window interface.
• 'The best way to predict the future is to invent it' is his most quoted line.