One of the goals of the Dynabook’s design is not to be worse than paper in any important way.

What kind of a thinker would you become if you grew up with an active simulator connected, not just to one point ofview, but to all the points of view of the ages represented so they could be dynamically tried out and compared? I named the notebook-sized computer idea the Dynabook to capture McLuhan’s metaphor in the silicon to come.

Since the 1970s, Alan Kay and other pioneers of learning technology have had visions of a single device: the Dynabook, a small, portable computer specially designed for creativity and learning. For many years it was only a vision, but at last the technology has caught up. Today I can buy a handheld device with all the power and features of a laptop but one that is not much larger than an iPod.

It is now within the reach of current technology to give all the Beths and their dads a "DynaBook" to use anytime, anywhere as they may wish. Although it can be used to comunicate with others through the 'knowledge utilities " of the future such as a school .library" (or business information system), we think that a large fraction of its use will involve reflexive comunication of the orner with himself through this personal medium, much as paper and notebooks are currently used.