Dream Machines & Walled Gardens

Ted Nelson was a troublemaker. In 1974, frustrated by the closed and bureaucratic world of computing, he wrote Computer Lib/Dream Machines, a book that was part manifesto and part blueprint for a digital future. Nelson saw computers not as tools of control but as portals to personal freedom, creativity and interconnected knowledge. He championed hypertext long before the web, called out the dangers of technical jargon designed to exclude ordinary people and fought for systems that put users in charge.

This talk tells the story of Computer Lib, the man behind it and the philosophy that shaped it. It explores how Nelson’s ideas could have led to a very different digital world, one built around open, decentralised knowledge rather than the walled gardens and algorithmic control we have today. What if his vision had won? What would the internet look like if computing had followed the path of Computer Lib instead of Big Tech?

Nelson once wrote that “most authority is malignant.” This is a talk about the man who wanted to dismantle it and the future we lost when the world ignored him.