A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages

TL;DR — Alan Kay’s 1972 Xerox PARC paper describing the Dynabook, a tablet computer for children, decades before tablets existed.

Kay’s first description of the Dynabook, written at Xerox PARC in 1972 and republished by the Viewpoints Research Institute “for historical context.” It opens with a story of two nine-year-olds in a park, playing Spacewar on networked Dynabooks and running to their teacher to learn the orbital mechanics behind their mistake. The paper goes on to the hardware and the educational philosophy.

What it is: a primary source in computing history and the foundation of the laptop and tablet idea. 12 pages, via the Wayback Machine.

Where this came from

• r/obscurePDFs post, April 2020 — “A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages”. Routing record: The obscurePDFs Subreddit
• Link as posted: http://www.vpri.org/pdf/hc_pers_comp_for_children.pdf

12 pages. A copy is archived locally against link rot; the header links the original source.